Pryde's Wisdom
by Sashie001
Summary: Kitty Pryde teams up with an unlikely group of heroes and villains to secure one mutant's place behind bars. Sequel to "Creed's Pryde." *Updated version of this story available!
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome to a very Alternative Universe! Ignore the movie-verse story line for the most part (aside from Victor and Logan being brothers and Logan undergoing Stryker's adamantium injection and bullet to the head). I used the movie category simply because I can't write Victor without picturing Liev... As for the comic-verse, I'm adapting it as I see fit. The characters are the same, the names, etc. But It'll be on my terms/timeline. For instance, Victor's time with the Marauders happened decades prior to this story. Lots of decades._

 _4 months after the final chapter of Creed's Pryde..._

 _Sinister has been behind bars in the maximum security prison The Raft for over a year. In the time since his incarceration the X-Men have focused on returning mutants displaced by Sinister's experiments to their rightful homes, and keeping a close watch on Stryker, awaiting his next attack on the mutant population. As the X-Men bide their time, the Hellfire Club is facing internal war. Unable to reach an agreement over their stake in Sinister's freedom, Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw tear the Club in two_ _. In an effort to stop Shaw from releasing Sinister, Emma turns to Kitty Pryde and Victor Creed in uneasy alliance. Will Kitty accept Emma's offer, or will Shaw succeed in freeing Sinister and crowning him new King of the Hellfire Club?_ _Not if British Intelligence Agency, MI-13 and Pete Wisdom have anything to say about it._

 ** _Present Day_**

 ** _New York_**

Emma Frost slipped a white-gold lock of hair behind her ear, eyes scanning again and again, the document spread out before her.

"Well?"

Sebastian Shaw, impressively tall draped in silk and velvet, eyes like smoking aces, was smirking at her from across the room. She loathed him, but for the first time in a long time, she feared he was quite possibly losing his mind.

Emma lifted her head, "You can't be serious."

Shaw's proposal, loosely outlined, involved orchestrating Sinister's prison break and crowning him ruler of the Hellfire Club. Eliminating the position and power of King and Queen, and turning the Club over, in full to Sinister.

"He's the most powerful mutant in the world," Shaw replied. "We'd be lucky to have him."

"We'd be dead," Emma corrected sharply, her memories of Stryker's facility and Sinister's play at doctor fresh in her mind. She shuddered, "My answer is no."

Shaw released a low laugh, "That's why there's two of us, Frost."

"There's nothing you can say to make me change my mind," Emma snapped, lifting herself to her full height and squaring her shoulders. "He's a monster. I won't help you release him."

"We'll vote," Shaw replied, immune to her icy stare.

"We just did."

"A draw," he said, a slow smile tipping the corners of his mouth. "Then we take it to the circle."

"They'll never agree to this."

"Then what are you worried about?"

Emma turned away from his smirking face, furious with herself for rising to the bait.

"A vote, then."

"A vote," Shaw repeated.

As she stalked out of the room, the door slamming shut in her wake Shaw settled into the chair at his hip. Eyes on his lengthy proposal, he extended a hand towards the phone by his desk, Stryker would be looking for a status report, and no better time to explain why they'd have to do away with Emma Frost.

Shaw's fingers tapped Stryker's designated number as he mused, mind already spinning endless possibilities.


	2. Chapter 2

**Present Day**

 _ **New York**_

"Katherine."

She lifted her head, air escaping from between her lips in icy puffs.

"Phone," Victor said, inclining his head towards the house. "Logan. Sounds important."

Even after fourteen months, the name still felt like a strip of sandpaper in his mouth. Kitty removed her gloves, stuffing them in her jacket as she climbed the porch and angled past him into the house.

"That's enough for one day, little kitten," Victor said quietly, dark eyes serious when she looked up at him. He shut the door behind them with enough finality to suggest she not argue. Kitty nodded mutely, removing her boots and gloves, too interested in Logan's call to put up a fight.

She'd been practicing phasing while in diamond form, testing the dual powers on different surfaces and materials to see if she could still inflict damage while intangible. The physics surpassed Victor's understanding of reality, but Kitty seemed intrigued by the duality of her existence in an intangible diamond state and was determined to exercise the power in combat.

"Logan?"

"Half-pint."

The pet name still brought a slow smile to her lips.

"I'll be twenty-six next year, you know."

"Don't remind me," Logan replied gruffly.

"What's wrong?"

"Some suits from MI-13 are on the way, something about wanting an update on Sinister's containment."

Kitty frowned, "An update? But there's nothing to update."

She caught sight of Victor's frown and shook her head, indicating there was nothing amiss. He returned to stoking the fire, eyes on the snowy landscape through the window. The cabin was remote, the surrounding area was nothing more than furry evergreens and the spindly limbs of leafless trees, every branch coated in glittering ice. The evergreens heavy with tufts of snow.

"That's what we tried to explain," Logan replied with a disgusted sigh. "They weren't taking no for an answer."

"When will they be here?"

"Their flight is tonight, seven o'clock our time. We're meeting tomorrow evening."

"We can be there tonight."

"It's probably nothing," Logan hedged.

"Routine," Kitty agreed, ignoring the prickle of uncertainty.

She hung up after mutual goodbye's, feeling unsettled. Sinister was back in their lives, and she didn't like it.

"What is it?" Victor asked, eyes on her.

"We're going to have company," Kitty said, releasing her hair from its top knot, sending curls bouncing over her shoulders.

"What kind of company?" Victor said, expression wary.

"The British kind," she replied. "Pack a bag, I told Logan we'd be at the Institute tonight."

Victor frowned, "British?"

"MI-13."

He groaned. MI-13 was the most precocious of Britain's existing intelligence agencies, in Victor's experience all they ever amounted to was a headache. Kitty tossed a discarded mitten at him, "Come on, we should pack."

Victor grumbled something unintelligible as he dragged himself away from the fire, following her upstairs to throw together an overnight bag.

Kitty tucked a pair of comfortable leggings into her pack, turning her back to rifle through her drawers for a sweater.

"How long are we staying?" Victor asked, watching her methodical packing.

She curled the wires to her computer into slick coils, replying, "A night, maybe two."

"You never told me why they're coming here."

"Sinister," she replied quietly. "Something about a status report."

"What status?" Victor said. "He's been behind bars for over a year, without incident."

Kitty shrugged, looking over her computer and charger organized for travel, and the duffel zipped at her feet.

"Would you look at that?" Victor said, eyeing her quick pack job, and then the clock. "We have an hour or two to spare before we hit the road."

Kitty couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Victor-"

He was too quick for her, flipping her onto the bed and covering her body with his before she could protest. His mouth trailed up her neck, incisors nipping her sensitive skin just enough to make her squirm.

"We should get going," Kitty said, catching his hand as it snaked its way under her sweater. "I mean it-"

But Victor's attention was elsewhere, fingers delving beneath the satiny cups of her bra to catch her nipples in turn. Kitty's spine arced without her consent, a small moan escaping her lips. Victor grinned, "What were you saying, little kitten."

Kitty made a face, "It'll be dark soon, I don't like driving in the snow-"

"I'm driving," he corrected her, pressing her sweater upwards to ladder kisses up her stomach.

"You know what I mean," she said, hands against his shoulders.

"If you're in a rush," Victor said, mouth closing over one rosy nipple with enough force to make Kitty cry out. "I can hurry things up."

She made a noncommittal noise and he smirked from his vantage point between her breasts, "That's what I thought."

Kitty unscrewed her eyes, shooting him a glare, "Don't gloat."

"What should I do instead," he said, dark eyes hot on her face.

Kitty married her hips to his, "Me."

Victor had her naked in under a minute, his hands traveling up her hips to circle the twin indents of her waist.

"I never get tired of looking at you, baby," he said gruffly, eyes lingering on every new swell and burst of naked skin. Kitty's cheeks tinged pink under his gaze. She tucked two fingers into the waist of his jeans leveraging herself upwards to sink her teeth into his chest. He growled, flattening her to the mattress, pinning her wrists to the headboard, running his mouth along her collarbones and the swell of each of her breasts. He tongued her nipples, until she was begging him for more.

"What do you want?" He said, finally lifting his head to look up at her.

"I want you inside of me," Kitty said, squirming to free her wrists. "I want to be on top-"

Victor released her wrists to sling an arm around her waist, he flipped their positions, leaving her sprawled across his chest. Kitty unbuttoned his flannel with the precision of a surgeon, covering every corner of newly freed flesh with her mouth. When she finally reached the line of his jeans Victor let out a low groan, "You're driving me crazy."

Kitty shot him a smirk, undoing the buttons of his pants and drawing them down his legs. He was finally naked beneath her. A sea of tawny flesh and dark hair. Victor stacked his arms above his head, watching her straddle his hips, both hands between his legs. Kitty shifted, palms splayed to his chest, as she positioned himself above him. She sashayed her hips back and forth, teasing just the tip of him with the wetness of her folds.

Victor's hips arched off the bed, trying to take more of her but Kitty resisted, continuing to tease him.

"Katherine," he growled, arms dropping downwards, fingers digging into her slim hips in an attempt to hold her steady. "Enough-"

She pressed downwards, sheathing him inside of her. His grip on her hips tightened to bruise, the tendons in his neck corded.

"Jesus, baby-"

Kitty lifted herself off his hips to repeat the motion, drawing him deeply inside of her and then fully out again and again. Until Victor was panting for release. She protested when he switched their positions, laying her across the mused sheets.

"I wasn't done."

"Much more of that and I would have been," he replied, forehead pressed to hers, mouth hovering just above her lips. He slipped between her legs, his thrusts shallow, insistent. Kitty tried to angle her hips to invite more of him but Victor shook his head. "You wanted things slow, little kitten. So that's how we'll do it."

Kitty squirmed beneath him, the pressure building between her legs, "I never said that-"

He nipped the side of her neck.

"Victor, please-"

She felt his smirk against her temple. Her hands dug into his backside, trying to draw him closer. He fucked her slowly, gently, carefully for what felt like an eternity. Finally he reached up, snaking one of the pillows from the top of the bed beneath her hips, lifting himself up to kneel between her legs. He positioned her carefully, angling her legs around him, one hand to the headboard, the other planted against the mattress by her shoulder. Kitty stared up at him, hands running down his front, fingers tangling in the hair across his chest, tugging for a moment, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

He entered her, taking a moment to study her arched back, the perfect O of her mouth, the instantaneous flush at each cheek. He thrust again, letting her body adjust to the angle, the deepness of his penetration before increasing his speed. The headboard knocked against the wall, driving a deeper gouge into the wood, paint chips like party confetti flickering to the floor. He'd plastered the section of wall twice now, at Kitty's request. As if on cue Kitty's eyes blinked open, lifting to the headboard, "Victor, the wall-"

He scooped her up, keeping her legs around his hips as he maneuvered off the bed. He framed her ass with his hands, fucking her standing up, in the center of their shared bedroom, her arms looped around his neck, breasts crushed to his front. Her orgasm rolled over them both, leaving her breathless, her head tossed back. Victor's release followed shortly after, his fingers digging into the supple flesh of her ass.

He lowered her onto the bed carefully, laying down beside her and gathering her into the crook of his shoulder. Kitty rested her cheek against his chest, one leg thrown over his.

"We could leave in the morning," Kitty reasoned, her eyes already fluttering closed.

Victor let out a laugh, "Says the woman who wanted to leave the second Logan called."

"You tired me out," she grumbled, swatting his chest.

He gathered her closer, "It's up to you, sweetheart. We can sleep here, or you can sleep in the car."

Kitty's eyes blinked open for a moment, startlingly blue against her flushed cheeks, "You can't hold me if I sleep in the car."

Victor reached downwards, gathering a handful of blankets and wrapping them around himself and Kitty, careful to cover her from toe to shoulder against the winter chill.

"I love you, little kitten."

She repeated the sentiment, pressing a kiss to his shoulder before promptly passing out. Victor stroked curls back from her forehead, watching her sleep against him, overwhelmed with the desire to whisk her away from Logan, MI-13 and Sinister.

He knew in his gut, MI-13's arrival was sure to change everything.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Present Day**_

 _ **New York**_

The room was still dusky from the last traces of nighttime when Victor's weight depressed the mattress on either side of her body, his hands planted against the plush comforter. Kitty gave him a singular look before moving to burrow deeper into her cocoon of blankets.

"Baby."

She rolled over, curls springing up from beneath the blanket as Victor pressed the comforter below her chin.

"What time is it."

"Six thirty."

"What's wrong?" She frowned, blue eyes blinking back sleep at his expression.

"Emma Frost is downstairs."

Kitty sat up, knocking her head against Victor's shoulder in the process.

"What is she doing here?"

Images of Mystique dredged to mind.

"She's looking for you."

Kitty stared up at him, "Me?"

"Get dressed," he said quietly. "It sounds important."

"How did she know where to find us."

The muscles in Victor's jaw ticked, his mouth tightening into a thin line, "I'm not sure."

Kitty shifted the pile of blankets aside, her feet connecting with the woven carpet beneath the bed.

"I'll be right down."

In under two minutes Kitty appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Emma stood at the far end of the living room. Bracketed by the window at her back. Her hair was coiled like a low lying snake at the nape of her neck, her coat buttoned to her chin, revealing slim ankles and pumps.

"Kitty."

Kitty fought the urge to tug at the hem of her sweater, feeling impish in her bare feet and bed head.

"How did you find us."

Emma tilted her head, "We share a gene. I'll always be able to locate you."

Kitty felt a fissure of fear at her words. Victor let out a low growl, stepping closer, protective instincts prickling.

"Victor-"

"I need to talk to Kitty alone," Emma said decidedly, moving closer, eyes on Victor. "Please."

Victor opened his mouth to refuse but Kitty put a hand to his shirtfront, "It's alright."

He hesitated, gazing between the two women, before finally relenting, "I'll be right outside."

"Thank you," Emma said as he brushed past her, muttering a singular warning. He closed the door behind him, boots stomping down the porch steps. Emma faced Kitty, expression placid, "I'm not here to harm you."

"I imagine you would have done it by now if you were," Kitty replied. "So, what are you doing here."

"I'm here to talk about Sinister."

Kitty frowned, the coincidence was not lost on her.

"What's happened?"

"Nothing as of yet. He remains safely in captivity," Emma replied.

"Then-"

"But I know of a plan to break him out."

Kitty sat down in the nearest kitchen chair, gesturing for Emma to do the same. Emma reached up, unbuttoning her jacket to reveal a velvety cream dress and dazzling emerald pendant. She caught Kitty's expression, matching her dismay with a minx-like smile.

Kitty glanced down at herself, and then shot her a wry look, "I look like an unmade bed."

"Victor seems to enjoy it."

Kitty watched Emma maneuver herself into the chair across the table from her, her shoulders straight as an arrow, hands folded neatly in front of her. She was every bit the ice queen her reputation suggested her to be.

"Tell me about Sinister."

Emma withdrew a carefully folded rectangle of papers from the depths of her coat. She laid them out across the table between them. Kitty laid a finger to the creamy paper, frowning at the swirling script, "Is this ink?"

"By law all proposals brought to the inner circle are to be hand written."

Kitty's eyes flicked upwards, "This is about the Hellfire Club."

"Yes."

"What are you planning."

Emma shook her head, "Not me, Sebastian."

"Shaw?" Kitty said. "I thought he couldn't move without you."

Emma's expression tightened, "So did I."

Kitty sat back in her chair, "Tell me everything I need to know."

"Read the document."

"I will, once you've explained what's going on."

Emma sighed, unaccustomed to bargaining.

As she opened her mouth to speak, Kitty held up a hand, "First, you can tell me how you got involved in Sinister's experiments last year."

If she hadn't been paying attention, Kitty would have entirely missed the flicker of fear in Emma's eyes at the sound of Sinister's name.

"Stryker's men raided the Club."

Kitty's brow shot skyward.

"He was looking for me," Emma continued, holding back a shiver of revulsion at the memory. "My, or should I say _our_ , powers are unique."

Kitty ignored the urge to squirm under Emma's maternal stare. Understanding, with certain clarity, that their shared powers meant more than a simple telepathic bond, but something much deeper.

"You were the only one he took?"

Emma nodded, "I was only at the facility a week or so before you arrived."

The memory washed over Kitty, bartering Emma's safety for an astral projection of herself.

"Victor couldn't believe you helped me," Kitty commented quietly. "When I told him you had shared your powers with me, he-"

"I wouldn't have shared my powers with just any mutant," Emma interrupted, her tone bordering on prim.

Kitty let out a low laugh, "You would have done anything I asked if it meant you were safe from Sinister."

Emma shook her head, "Dying would have been preferable to transferring my powers to a lesser mutant."

Kitty moved out of her chair, filling the kettle on the stove with water.

"I don't understand why you're here, Emma."

"For one, to thank you for saving my life."

Kitty turned to meet her eyes, recognizing the admiration there, cheeks growing warm under the other woman's unspoken praise.

"I couldn't have done it without your help."

"You are an incredible mutant, Ms. Pryde."

Kitty took a breath, understanding that Emma hadn't driven into the mountains for small talk and tea.

"What do you want from me."

Emma leaned back in her chair, cool eyes assessing, "I need your help against Sebastian."

"You haven't told me what he's planning yet."

Emma indicated the paperwork spread out across the table, "It's all here for you to read. The short version is he plans to liberate Sinister."

Kitty bent her head, eyes scanning each heavy piece of parchment in front of her. After a few minutes she looked up. "Shaw is trying to turn the Club over to Sinister?"

"In essence, yes," Emma nodded. "There would be no King or Queen, only Sinister."

Kitty began sorting through the papers, looking for some clue, anything to give them a lead.

"We need to move quickly if we're going to stop him."

"We?" Kitty repeated, hands stilling against the table top, eyes lifting to meet Emma's determined stare.

"I told you, that's why I'm here."

"Why me?"

"Because I watched you defeat Sinister with your bare hands," Emma said, the memory tipping the corners of her mouth upwards. "You were magnificent."

"I was lucky," Kitty replied shortly.

"With your help, and the rest of the X-men behind us, we can stop Sebastian and keep Sinister behind bars."

Kitty was quiet, contemplative.

"What exactly do you need me to do?" She asked, resistant to the idea of going up against Stryker a second time, but resigned to the reality of the situation.

"I want to take over the Club together, as Queens." Emma filled Kitty's silence by adding, "I want you to rise as Black Queen to overthrow Sebastian."

Kitty's eyes widened, "Is that possible?"

Emma leaned back in her chair, "I checked the bi-laws, there's nothing to prohibit two Queens."

Kitty's expression remained frozen in surprise. Two Queens to rule the Hellfire Club was unheard of, even in her limited knowledge of the Club she knew that. And here Emma Frost was, asking her to break tradition, and become the Black Queen to rule the Club. In a million years, even with her best guess, Kitty could never have foreseen Emma's proposal, or her own pending involvement with the Club.

Emma pressed on, disregarding Kitty's wide eyed look, "With the Club under our control we should have the manpower to overthrow Sebastian before he does anything irreversible."

"But how-"

"Sebastian's proposal has already divided the Club, it's the perfect moment to call for a vote."

Kitty made a face, "You're putting a lot of faith in the inner circle."

"Sinister is a monster," Emma replied. "They'll see reason."

"And if they don't?" Kitty demanded.

"That's not an option," Emma replied stiffly.

Kitty sat back in her chair, releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"So, what?" She said, waving her hand at Shaw's proposal. "We write up a proposal to present?"

Emma shook her head, "It's much simpler than that. I announce our motion to replace Sebastian with you."

Kitty rubbed a hand across her face, her mind spinning at the suggestion Emma had laid before her. Kitty Pryde, the next Black Queen.

"And then what?"

"We make our appeal to the inner circle, and they vote."

"Would Shaw have a chance to refute us?"

Emma nodded, "He would be given a chance to speak."

"Then we need a back up plan," Kitty said.

"I step down as White Queen, and we rely on the X-men."

"We may have more help than you think," Kitty said quietly, reminded suddenly of MI-13's agents en route.

Emma's brow lifted, Kitty noticed without considerable wrinkle, "You're agreeing?"

Kitty stood up from her chair, gathering Shaw's proposal up into her arms, "Is there another way?"

"No," Emma said. "None that I've come up with."

"Then yes," Kitty replied. "I'm in."

Emma's shoulders visibly relaxed at her affirmation.

"I'll talk to the Professor and Logan. You need to start gathering supporters within the Club, specifically on the inner circle," Kitty said, thrusting the proposal into Emma's hands. Her mind spinning, as she tried to keep a mental track of the tasks she needed to accomplish to move Emma's plan forward.

Emma gathered up her belongings, moving towards the door, "I've already begun. Within the week I should have enough votes to overthrow Sebastian."

"When is the vote?"

Emma thought for a moment, as she slipped her coat over each shoulder, "Next week would be best."

Kitty nodded her agreement, "The sooner the better."

Emma's hand lifted to the doorknob.

"Emma."

She stopped, meeting Kitty's gaze.

"We do this as equals, or not at all. Do you understand."

Emma looked poised to argue but instead nodded her consent after a moment of silence, "Yes."

Kitty returned her nod, watching her pull open the door, letting in cool air and a splash of morning sunlight.

"I'll be in touch."

She disappeared without another word, the sound of her car crunching over the bed of leaves leading to the main road disappearing into the distance. Victor pushed open the back door, brow furrowed, "What's going on."

Kitty sat down heavily in the nearest kitchen chair, unsure where to begin.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Present Day**_

 _ **New York**_

The car ride to the Institute was mostly silent. Punctuated occasionally by Victor muttering under his breath at the radio, or other drivers, and Kitty rearranging her pillow against the window. The closer they came to the Institute the more agitated Victor became.

Finally he broke the prolonged silence, "We're only twenty minutes out."

The clock on the dash read twelve thirty. Kitty swallowed a yawn, still turning the mornings events over and over in her head, she hadn't slept more than a couple minutes the duration of the car ride. Thinking of Emma, her proposal, her fear at the thought of Sinister's release. A fear Kitty could almost taste sitting across the kitchen table from the other woman.

"I don't trust her."

It was as though he'd read her thoughts.

"I know," Kitty replied evenly.

"But you do."

She was thoughtful for a moment, before replying, "Yes."

They rolled to a stop at a red light, Victor turning to face her, scrutinizing.

"Why?"

"She is as terrified of Sinister as I am," Kitty replied honestly.

Victor made a disagreeable noise.

"Why don't you trust her."

"Because she's Emma Frost," Victor replied, pulling the car through the intersection as the light flicked green. "Because she's been involved with Shaw and the Hellfire Club for as long as I've known her."

"Sinister kidnapped her-"

"Nobody kidnaps the White Queen," Victor muttered.

"What are you saying?" Kitty demanded, shifting to face him, her pillow forgotten. "That she's lying?"

"Not necessarily."

"Then what?"

Victor let out a breath, rubbing a hand across his face, "I don't know, Katherine."

She waited, watching him.

"I think someone set her up."

"But who?"

"That's what I plan on finding out," Victor said, expression determined.

"If she was set up, it makes her even more of an ally," Kitty reasoned.

"We don't know if she was, or wasn't."

"No," Kitty replied. "But the chances of Stryker's men finding and looting the Club are slim."

"Not without repercussions," Victor replied.

"No one came for her," Kitty said, sinking back into her seat, her brain going into overdrive at the possibilities. Emma had been abandoned to Sinister's lab, and if not for her, would have died by his hand.

"Shaw's a bastard," Victor said. "But not fool enough to sacrifice his Queen to another mutant. It admits weakness."

"Unless he was in on it," Kitty said.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Victor replied with a heavy sigh.

"Emma said it was Stryker's men would raided the Club."

Victor's brows came together.

"You don't think Shaw is somehow connected to him as well?" Kitty said, uncomfortable at this new web of alliances.

Victor made a disagreeable noise, a non-answer, that left Kitty even more unsettled.

"If all, or any of that is true," she pressed on, eyes on Victor's profile. "Emma needs our help more than ever."

Victor made no move to reply, expression grim.

"Victor," Kitty said, laying a hand on his arm. "You know I'm right. If only to keep Sinister locked away, we-"

"There is no _we_ in Frost's plan. There's only you."

"That's not true," Kitty said, frowning. "She's going to need all of us once we take over Hellfire-"

"Did she tell you what happens if you fail to impeach Shaw with a vote."

She sat back, waiting.

"It's within Shaw's power to execute Frost for treason."

"What about me."

Victor's fingers tightening around the steering wheel was answer enough.

"She didn't tell me that."

He let out a low laugh, "What a surprise."

"It wouldn't have changed my mind," Kitty replied shortly.

"And you want to know why I don't trust her," Victor ground out, ignoring Kitty's statement.

"I don't know why Emma wasn't completely honest with me about-"

He pinned her with a glare, "Don't play dumb with me, little kitten."

Kitty took a breath, resigned, "Fine, I know why she did it. And she shouldn't have, but she's right. If we don't do something soon- _now_ \- it'll be too late."

"Her way isn't the only way, Katherine."

"Right now it is," Kitty shot back. Her hand rose unconsciously to her side, where Sinister had slashed her ribs, the blow intended to kill, "I can't live in a world where Sinister is free to do as he pleases."

Victor watched the motion, jaw tightening, gaze flicking back to the road before he lost his temper completely.

"I need you to trust me."

Victor shook his head, mute with fury.

"Victor, please-"

Kitty shifted closer, freeing herself from her seat belt to lay her hand over his beating heart, her forehead against his shoulder, "I worked so hard to bring him down once, don't make me have to do it again."

He was quiet for remainder of the drive, expression grim, knuckles white from the pressure of gripping the steering wheel.

They arrived at the Institute in record time, Victor's fury keeping the speedometer above seventy for the final miles of the trip. He wrangled their bags from the back seat of his truck, swinging them over his shoulder.

"Let me explain Emma," Kitty said, stepping between him and the porch steps. "Please?"

Victor stared down at her. She moved closer but he side stepped her, walking up the porch and into the Institute.

"Victor."

He turned, his patience spent, his expression worn, "Come on, little kitten."

His endearment did nothing to offset the hard edge in his black eyes. Kitty squared her shoulders and followed him inside, preparing herself to face the Professor and Logan and their inevitable barrage of questions, resigned to doing it all without Victor's help.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Present Day**_

 _ **New York**_

It took under five minutes to rouse Logan's temper to a full shout, and roughly four hours to bring his blood pressure back into a liveable range.

"MI-13 will be here at seven a.m. sharp," Xavier said, after they had fully debriefed on Kitty's meeting with Emma, and the implications it had for Shaw and Sinister in turn.

"How much of this are we telling them?" Scott asked.

"All of it," Logan replied shortly.

Xavier nodded. "Keeping secrets from the agency isn't going to help us."

"Emma said she would be in touch," Kitty said, removing her glasses to rub her tired eyes. "And when she is, I'll share whatever she has to say."

"You're sure about all of this?" Jean said, frowning at Kitty from across the table.

"No," Kitty replied honestly. "But after reading Shaw's proposal, it doesn't matter how I feel. We need to make a move before he does."

"That doesn't mean it has to be this," Rogue said, ignoring Kitty's annoyed glare. Victor remained perfectly silent to her right, brow wrinkled to frown, his mouth set in a grim line.

Sensing the tension Logan pinned Victor with narrowed eyes, "You haven't said a damn thing all meeting."

"I've already said what I needed to say," Victor replied tightly, eyes on Kitty.

"I know how you all feel," Kitty said. "But this is all we've got right now."

"And if something better comes along?" Logan said.

"Then we bite," Kitty shrugged. "Maybe MI-13 has a simple solution to all of this."

Victor snorted, "I doubt it."

"We'll reconvene here at seven," Xavier said, bringing the meeting to a close.

"Danger room, anyone?" Scott said, standing up, stretching the joints in his shoulders.

"What do you say, old man?" Logan said, eyes on Victor.

Kitty gathered up her belongings, half wanting him to go blow off some steam, the other half of her begging him to take her upstairs and tell her everything was going to be alright.

When he agreed to go downstairs with the other men she felt herself bristle. Taking his decision as a dismissal she followed Rogue out of the room, letting the door snap shut behind her.

"You look like you could use an hour or two downstairs," Rogue said.

"I have lesson plans waiting for me," Kitty replied with a grimace. She was running three online courses this semester, two for Oro and one for Hank. The work had been piling up all week, and thanks to the combined efforts of Logan and Emma's distractions over the past two days, long overdue.

"Come out tonight?"

She hesitated, "I'll think about it."

"Don't," Jubilee appeared at her elbow, inky hair pulled into spiky pigtails at either side of her head. "Just come out."

Kitty cracked a smile, "I'll think about it."

Rogue pulled Jubilee in the direction of the living room, leaving Kitty to wind her way back upstairs to her old room to tackle her work.

By the time she finished her lesson plans, graded the latest set of papers and organized her grade book into some semblance of sanity it was past ten. Logan and Victor were still in the Danger Room. She glanced at the clock, thinking of Rogue's invitation. Finally, she changed clothes and left the Institute, ignoring the little voice in the back of her head encouraging her to stay home- to talk to Victor.

She made it to the bar in under thirty minutes, trucking it to the train and the half black from the downtown station to the club entrance.

Rogue and Jubilee were at their usual table, posted up with beer they hadn't paid for and huge grins.

Jubilee wrapped both arms around Kitty upon arrival, "I'm so glad you decided to come out."

Rogue reiterated the sentiment, giving Kitty a curious look, "Does Victor know you're here?"

Kitty slid her leather jacket down her arms, revealing a silky top and silver choker Victor had bought for her twenty-fifth birthday.

"No," she finally replied. "He was still downstairs with Logan when I left."

Rogue opened her mouth to comment but thought better of it.

Kitty eyed the bar, "I need a drink."

Rogue and Jubilee were already leaning towards the dance floor. Kitty waved them off, taking her purse and turning in the direction of the packed bar.

She found an open pocket at the right right corner between a gaggle of blondes and a dark haired man wearing an untidy button down rolled to his elbows and a smirk that bordered on arrogant.

"Excuse me," she maneuvered her body flush to the lip of the bar top, arm brushing the man beside her. She could feel his eyes on her.

Within thirty second of her arrival, the man had whole heartedly abandoned any attempts to keep his eyes off her legs. Kitty shifted, sending curls over one shoulder, blue eyes trained on the glittering bottles behind the bar, determined to ignore him.

"Rum and coke," she signaled the bartender, pressing money across the sticky bar top.

"Haven't found anyone to buy your drinks yet, love?"

His accent caught her by surprise. MI-13 instantly sprang to mind. He was sprawled across a barstool, a jumble of long limbs, cigarette smoke and liquid black eyes.

"You're not from around here," she said, expression somewhere between bored and disinterested. She wondered absently if MI-13 allowed its agents to drink on the job.

The man grinned, "What gave me away."

Her rum and coke appeared, cooling the palm of her hand. Kitty turned to go, stiffening when the man caught her elbow.

"You didn't tell me your name."

"Katherine," she replied around a sip of rum and coke.

"Pete," he said, dropping her elbow to extend his hand. Kitty gave him a singular smile, ignored his hand, and disappeared into the crowd.

Rogue caught her arm when she neared their familiar table, "Who was that?"

"Some British guy."

"He's staring at you."

Kitty shrugged, purposefully turning her back to the bar.

Rogue shook her head, "Still staring."

Jubilee shimmied closer, beer in hand, "What are you looking at."

Rogue inclined her head towards the bar, "Kitty has a suitor."

"Would you knock it off," Kitty snapped, biting back a laugh at Rogue's beguiling grin.

"He's coming over here."

Kitty's head snapped up, eyes shifting from Jubilee to Rogue and back again, "Are you serious?"

Rogue pitched a final look over Kitty's hand before giving her a wink and dragging Jubilee onto the dance floor. Leaving Kitty alone at the high top table with their half finished beers and leather jackets slung over the chair backs.

She felt his eyes on the slope of her exposed shoulders before he stepped into her line of vision. The smoke clinging to his shirt surrounded her before his hand arrived unbidden at her elbow for a second time.

"You're almost empty," he said amicably, ignorant to her icy stare, eyes on her drink. "I'll buy you another."

"No thank you."

"I'll walk you to the bar so you can buy yourself another," he offered, his grin more charming than handsome. He had a rough face, linear and finely lined. Kitty couldn't help but wonder if he'd been a cowboy, roughing it in the wildness of the west, in a past life.

"Fine," she conceded, slipping away from his light touch to maneuver her way back to the bar. She had her elbows planted against the lip of the bar by the time he slid onto a stool.

"Tell me something about yourself."

Kitty pondered for a moment, sifting through what she could reveal and what would be considered classified. Finally deciding on, "I'm a teacher."

"A professor," he grinned. "What do you teach."

And so the conversation went. Back and forth. Pete asking questions, eyes lingering on the crux of her collarbones, her mouth against the tip of her straw, the curvature of her ass in her dark jeans. Kitty toeing the line between truth and lie with each passing question, revealing fragments of herself.

"Enough about me," she finally said, the rum starting to color her blood bold. Miming his original question with a slow smile, "Tell me something about yourself."

Pete shifted in his chair, knees angled to open, bracketing her slim hips, just shy of brushing against her.

"What do you want to know, love?"

Kitty considered the motion, his closeness, his pet-name, before turning her attention back to her drink, replying, "What are you doing so far from home."

Pete took a long sip from his beer, thankful her attention was elsewhere, there was no chance she'd seen the flicker of hesitation in his expression before he replied, "I'm here for work."

"What kind of work?"

It was his turn to juggle truth and lies.

The bar clock read ten to two when Rogue appeared at Kitty's elbow, proffering her discarded jacket in one hand.

"Time to go," Pete said, watching Kitty maneuver into her jacket under Rogue's watchful eye.

"Yes," Kitty said, tucking her clutch under one arm and picking up Rogue's hand in the other.

"You're sure?" Pete said, locking eyes with Kitty.

"Yes," Rogue intervened.

"I'm sure," Kitty replied, jerking Rogue's hand, a silent warning to be quiet.

"I could walk you out."

"We'll be just fine," Kitty said, unable to swallow her smile. "We're very capable women."

Pete's brow rose at her coyness, "I believe it."

Kitty's cheeks flamed pink and Rogue pulled her into the crowd, towards the door. Jubilee appeared beside them, inky hair bobbing around her face, her taupe overcoat buttoned to her chin.

"He was forward," Rogue commented when their feet hit the sidewalk. Kitty adjusted her jacket, tightening the belt around her waist against the cool night air.

"He was hot," Jubilee corrected.

Kitty made a face.

"Did he ask for your number?"

"He's not from around here," Kitty replied, giving Jubilee a small shove. "Not a word when we get home."

"Are you fighting?" Rogue asked carefully.

"Not fighting."

"Disagreeing," Jubilee suggested.

"Something like that," Kitty conceded.

"He loves you," Rogue replied, confident, linking her arms with either woman. "Lets go home."

"I still think you should have gotten his number."

"Jubilee-"

Something dark and sinister shifted in the alleyway to Kitty's right. She immediately stiffened, not breaking stride, murmuring, "We're being followed."

"I see it," Rogue replied. Jubilee kept up her banter, feigning indifference, all the while casing the street, laying out an attack and escape plan.

Something brilliantly silver caught a flash of movement down an alley on the other side of the street.

"There's more of them," Kitty said, finally halting. Rogue stepped back, eyes on the path they'd covered from the club to the street. Kitty was busy undoing the belt and buttons of her jacket, freeing her arms for combat. Jubilee shot a cascade of yellow sparks down the nearest alleyways, illuminating Donald Pierce, and two other mutants they recognized as lesser members of the Hellfire Club.

"Pierce," Rogue said quietly, a frown forming between her dark brows.

"Why's Shaw sending out the big guns?" Jubilee demanded, her back to the other two, hands outstretched, white hot plasma trailing between her fingers tips. Kitty dropped into a battle ready stance, flexing her shoulders as her skin rippled to diamond.

The two henchmen moved first, vaulting for Kitty and Rogue respectively. Jubilee nailed one man in the leg with a bolt of plasma, slowing him down enough for Kitty to land a series of short chops to his unprotected chest and neck. He wrangled a hand around her throat, and Kitty tucked her body inward, propelling both feet into his chest, sending them both crashing to the ground.

Rogue and Jubilee quickly incapacitated the second henchmen, their attention turning to Pierce, lurking at the edges of the alleyway. Before they could move forward and attack something cut through the air, taking Pierce by surprise, catching the breastplate of his glittering cyborg body, leaving a deep welt in the metal.

"What the hell was that," Rogue hissed, turning in the direction from which the bolt of energy had come.

Kitty delivered a final, bone crunching blow to the man she'd been grappling with. A low whistle sounded from somewhere behind her. She turned, frowning at the sight of Pete, half done cigarette hanging between his lips. The fingers of his right hand were elongated to almost three times their normal size, glowing white hot against the nighttime.

"Pete-"

His eyes flashed briefly to Kitty, and the crumpled body at her feet. He smirked, impressed, "I may have to rethink my sexy school girl fantasy for you."

Before Kitty could reply, he sent another bolt knifing through the air, this one hooking across Pierce's unprotected face. The more cyborg than man stumbled back, one hand to his forehead, his face twisted in a scowl, "I'm not here to fight."

"Pity," Pete said, eyeing him with thinly concealed mistrust.

Pierce's finger lifted, finding Kitty, "I have a message for you."

Kitty felt naked under his scrutiny, having shed her diamond skin upon Pete's arrival. She saw Rogue take a protective step towards her.

"What do you want," Kitty demanded, squaring her shoulders. Flexing her intangability, the telltale prickle of electricity, thanks to Victor's cuff all those months ago, fizzing at the base of her spine.

"Sebastian Shaw requests a meeting with you," Pierce said.

"Shaw?" Kitty said. "With me."

"Alone," Pierce added.

"What does he want with Kitty?" Rogue demanded.

"That's for Ms. Pryde to find out," Pierce replied, eyes never leaving Kitty.

Kitty ignored her surge of anxiety, "When?"

"Thursday, nine o'clock."

"Isn't that a school night, professor," Pete murmured, he'd closed the distance between himself and Kitty at Pierce's announcement. His cigarette hissed between the pavement and the toe of his shoe.

"Don't call me that," she snapped, eyes on Pierce. She raised her voice, "And if I don't show?"

Pierce shrugged a silvery shoulder, "The Black King waits for no mutant, Ms. Pryde."

Kitty felt an unfamiliar fission of fear.

"Tell him I'll be there," she said, reasoning the uncertainty of ignoring his request and awaiting his response would be worse than an audience with the king of Hellfire Club.

Pierce gave a single nod, "As for the location. The Black King will be in touch."

Kitty frowned, "I-"

But she was speaking to an empty alleyway. Pierce had materialized into the night with no more than a flash of silver flesh.

"Should have let me walk you home, love."

"We had everything under control," Kitty replied tartly, stepping over the felled man at her feet just to make a point. Pete followed, smirking.

"You're not really going to the Hellfire Club alone," Jubilee frowned, taking Kitty's arm. "Are you?"

"I don't think I have much of a choice," Kitty replied. Her mind jumping to Emma, and their plans. How much did Shaw already know?

"This changes things," Rogue said, as if reading Kitty's thoughts. Kitty nodded her agreement, teeth catching her bottom lip.

"We need to get home and tell the others," Jubilee said, eyes darting from Kitty to Pete.

"You're a mutant," Rogue said, eyeing Pete uncertainly.

"Pete Wisdom," he said.

Rogue's brow snapped together, "You're the agent MI-13 sent."

"At your service," he said, shaking another cigarette from the misshapen pack in the breast pocket of his wrinkled button down.

"Did you know who Kitty-who _we_ were?" Jubilee blurted, cheeks hot under Kitty's glare.

"No," Pete said, Kitty pointedly ignored his gaze, weighing on her like a too warm sweater.

"We need to get home," Rogue said, checking the glowing face of her phone. "It's almost three."

Kitty groaned, "We're dead."

"I'm surprised Logan isn't here already," Rogue rolled her eyes.

"Ladies," Pete gestured down the street in the direction of the train station. They completed the half a block walk, climbing quietly aboard the train, and making the fifteen minute ride home in almost complete silence.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Present Day_**

 ** _New York_**

The combined fury of Logan and Victor met them on the front porch upon their arrival.

"Where the hell have you been?" Victor growled, eyes on Kitty. She felt, more than saw, Pete bristle beside her.

"It's almost three o'clock," Logan said, cigar smoking between his lips, his forehead rippled to frown. "What took you?"

"We were stopped outside of the bar," Rogue said.

"What do you mean stopped?" Victor's eyes narrowed.

"Who the hell are you?" Logan demanded, finally noting the suit standing behind the three women.

"Can we at least come inside?" Jubilee said, shivering in the night air, her overcoat leaving much of her legs exposed. Logan grumbled his agreement, prowling after Rogue. Pete climbed the porch steps behind Kitty, his hand lifting to the small of her back. She stepped out of reach, avoiding Victor's hot gaze.

Rogue and Jubilee entered the Institute, Kitty close behind them. Victor's hand shot out, curling around the lapel of her jacket, jerking her into his chest, "We'll be right in."

"Take your hands off the lady."

Kitty's head whipped around, eyes on Pete. His expression was murderous, her gaze dropped to his fingers, relieved to see they were their normal size and shape.

"What did you say to me?" Victor growled, moving Kitty behind him so he could stare Pete full in the face.

"I said-"

Kitty stepped forward, hand to Victor's chest, "Go inside, please. Pete."

He hesitated, before tossing his half done cigarette into the lawn with a disgusted look.

Logan appeared in the doorway, "'You still haven't told me your name, bub."

Kitty avoided Pete's stare as he brushed by her and into the house, slamming the door in his wake, cutting them off from Logan's barrage of questions.

"Who the fuck was that."

"The agent from MI-13," Kitty replied, hand dropping from his chest to drag through her curls. She'd shorn them off, nearly to her collar bones after leaving Victor for her year hiatus. Occasionally the shortness still surprised her, Victor called it her phantom hair.

Victor growled his dislike, "I can smell him all over you."

Kitty threw him a look, "Don't make this about him."

"Then what is this about?" he demanded, cornering her against the thick banister bracketing the porch.

"This is about what happened this morning, and Emma," Kitty replied, tilting her chin back to meet his gaze, hellbent on looking unaffected by his fury.

"It's about a lot of things, Katherine."

She fought the urge to roll her eyes, knowing more likely than not that it would end in her hanging over his bent knee.

"Where'd you pick him up?"

"He was at the bar," Kitty replied evenly. "He showed up outside when-"

She cut herself off, teeth catching her bottom lip against the next piece of news Victor was sure to see red over. He leaned closer, hands coming down on either side of the railing, boxing her in, his breath warm across her face. He smelled like Logan's cigar smoke and sweat from the danger room. Despite her best efforts she felt her body react to his closeness.

"When, what, little kitten."

Relieved he was too angry to pick up any change in her scent, Kitty pressed on, "Donald Pierce was waiting for us outside."

Victor's eyes narrowed, "Don Pierce."

"Yes."

"The Don Pierce that sits on the inner circle of the Hellfire Club?"

She winced as his voice rose progressively louder, nodding once, "Yes."

"Jesus Christ, woman-"

Victor jerked backwards, turning his back on her for a moment, running both hands through his short hair.

"This has nothing to do with Emma-"

"Like hell!"

"He was sent by Shaw."

Victor whipped around, "Shaw?"

"He wants to meet with me," Kitty said, eyes on the muscle ticking in Victor's jaw. "At the Club."

"That's all Pierce said?"

She nodded.

"You're not going. I fucking forbid you to go."

Kitty stiffened at his words, "It's not your decision."

When he reached for her she phased, his expression darkening as his hand passed through her bicep.

"It's not your decision," she repeated, emphasizing each word.

"You're going to regret pissing me off," Victor growled softly.

"If you're not going to help me, I want you to leave."

His dark eyes widened, "What did you say?"

"You heard me," Kitty replied, drawing herself up to her full height.

"I heard you, little kitten," he said, eyes narrowed.

"I mean it," she pressed on. "I've made my decision to help Emma, you can either stand by me and help, or go the hell home."

Victor was perfectly silent, fists clenched at his sides, looking her over. She was a hellion, her blue eyes snapping with fury, leather jacket unbuttoned just enough to reveal the velvety choker he'd bought her and the rise and fall of her chest.

"I'm not going anywhere, little kitten."

"Then-"

He had her pinned to the side of the Institute before she could say more, hands around her biceps, glaring down at her.

"I put you in harms way once before where Sinister's concerned, and I won't do it again," he continued, ignoring her protests. "If you go to the Club, I'm going with you. No exceptions. And as for Frost, I still don't trust her. But I'll let her live as long as she's not a threat to you."

Kitty acknowledged his compromise with a nod, "Thank you."

"As for that fucking MI-13 agent," Victor growled, fingers tightening around her arms enough to make her squirm. "If he puts his hands on you again, I'll tear them off."

"He didn't-"

"I saw him," Victor interrupted.

"You're overreacting."

"I'm protecting what's mine," he corrected quietly.

"He saved us from Pierce," Kitty argued. "He followed us and protected us from him."

Victor let out a snort, "You're telling me the three of you couldn't handle him."

Kitty made a face at the trap she'd set for herself. Victor released her arms, running his fingers through her hair, tilting her head back so he could look her dead in the eye. Her cheeks were pale from the cold, and her run in with Shaw's men, making her full lips look redder than usual.

"Why'd you go out tonight."

"Because you were busy with Logan."

Victor's brow lifted at her tone, "Did you want me to be busy with something else?"

"I wanted you to talk to me," Kitty replied, expression softening. "After the meeting, you were so angry. I just wanted to talk."

"Why didn't you say so."

Kitty's shoulders slumped a little, "I was angry, too."

Victor leaned closer, kissing her lips apart.

"I bet I know how to fix it," he murmured against her mouth. Kitty's arms lifted to his shirtfront as he married his hips to hers. Victor cradled her head in his palm, his opposite hand slipping down the front of her jacket to release the remaining buttons. He cupped her breast through the silk of her shirt, taking her bottom lip between his teeth.

The front door swung open to their right, banging against the side of the house. Pete stood in the opening, eyes on Victor's hand pressed to Kitty's shirtfront. Kitty made a noise of protest, wriggling for a moment against Victor's hold on her, before deciding it was pointless.

"Xavier's looking for you two."

Victor released a low growl, "We'll be right in."

Pete stepped out of sight, shutting the door once again.

"If he keeps this up, I'll-"

Kitty pressed onto the tips of her toes, kissing Victor before he could carry out his threat. She lifted her hips to his, sashaying them back and forth against the growing bulge in his pants.

"We need to go in," she said, turning her head away from his kiss. Victor growled at her cat-like smile.

"Not after that, we're not," he growled back, pinning her lower body to the house with his hips, his fingers seeking her nipple. Kitty phased, leaving him holding air, forehead to the wood of the Institute. "Katherine-"

"You can fuck me senseless later," she said, opening the door with one hand, and holding out the opposite for him to take.

Victor narrowed his eyes at her, accepting her outstretched hand and following her into the house. He leaned close to her, murmuring against her ear, "I hope you weren't expecting to get any sleep tonight, sweetheart."

Kitty glanced back at him, smiling. They entered Xavier's office, mutants were posted up along the walls, and around Xavier's desk. Kitty came to a stop beside Rogue, catching Pete in her peripheral vision, aware of his eyes on her. Brushing across her hand linked to Victor's, her legs showcased in dark jeans.

"Half-pint."

Logan met her gaze, frowning, expectant.

"What took you."

Kitty ignored Pete's sardonic question. Pulling open her jacket and discarding it on the back of a chair, she surveyed the room with a sigh, "We ran into some trouble tonight outside the bar."

"That's the understatement of the year," Victor grumbled from behind her, trying to keep his eyes off her newly exposed flesh. The silky top left nothing to the imagination, from the curvature of her shoulders to the twin peaks of her nipples aroused by cold, or his fingers, he wasn't sure.

Kitty shot him an arch look, "Victor-"

"What happened?" Logan interrupted, brows bunched together in a frown. "Start from the beginning."

Rogue and Kitty carried the story between them, relaying Pierce's attack, and his message for Kitty.

"What did Shaw mean, he'll be in touch?"

"The location of the Club is a well kept secret," Xavier replied, looking at Pete, lounging against the far wall, arms over his chest.

"It won't be once Kitty is invited there."

"He wouldn't bring her to the actual Club," Scott said. "Would he?"

"Probably not," Logan replied. "Possibly a satellite location, or-"

"The location of the Club doesn't change, just its appearance."

Every head in the room turned. Emma stood in the doorway, pulling crimson gloves delicately off each hand, her cheeks pink from the cold.

"Emma-"

"I use my powers to cloak the entrance," Emma explained, oblivious to the wide eyed stares she was drawing. "Even if you've been invited in, you'd never find it again. It takes a powerful mutant to be able to see through an astral projection."

Kitty took a step closer, frowning.

"I heard what happened," she said.

"Nothing happened," Kitty replied. "Pierce relayed the message, and then was gone."

"Sebastian knows something is up," Emma shook her head.

"What does he want with Katherine?" Victor demanded.

"I'm not sure," Emma replied honestly, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. "I suppose we'll know after Thursday."

"I'm not sending you in there blind," Victor growled, gaze turning back to Kitty.

"We talked about this," she replied quietly, giving him a pointed look.

"He won't harm her," Emma assured him.

"How can you be sure?" Logan demanded.

"Because he would have done it already," Emma replied simply. "It would have been as simple as meeting her outside the bar tonight himself."

Kitty shivered at Emma's blunt assessment of her situation, she felt Victor stiffen at her side.

"Maybe he's waiting for you both to overthrow him for the opportunity to have you both killed," Victor growled, black eyes honed in on Emma. She remained unflappable under his scrutiny.

"I should have told you," she said simply, meeting Kitty's gaze.

"It wouldn't have changed my decision to help you," Kitty replied honestly, ignoring Victor's growl.

"What are you proposing?" Logan demanded. "We let her go meet Shaw, by herself?"

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting," Emma replied, coming to stand beside Kitty. Dwarfing her, despite Kitty's wedged boots. "We play Sebastian's game, until we motion to overthrow him. The less he suspects the better."

"What the hell are you people planning?" Pete demanded, stepping away from the wall to come to the center of the room. His hair was sticking up in the front, indicative of the amount of times he'd run his fingers through it in the last hour.

"You have a lot of catching up to do," Rogue shook her head. "A _lot_."

"I need a smoke," Pete grumbled.

Kitty motioned Emma out of the room, as the rest began to debrief Pete on the situation at hand. She pressed a hand to Victor's shirtfront, "I'll be back."

He begrudgingly let her go unaccompanied. Kitty closed the door to Xavier's office behind them, shooing away a number of new recruits who were hovering outside. When they were finally alone, she asked, "What are you doing here."

"I heard Sebastian sent Donald out looking for you," Emma replied, giving Kitty a quick once over. "When I felt you tap into your mutation I assumed the worst."

Kitty frowned, "You came over to check on me?"

"Yes," Emma replied. "Is that so unbelievable?"

Kitty ran both hands through her hair, thinking of the chances of meeting an MI-13's agent bar side, finally reply, "No, I guess it's not."

"What exactly did Donald say."

"That Shaw requests my presence at the Club," Kitty said. "Thursday, nine o'clock."

"He couldn't have found out we we're planning."

"You're sure?"

Emma nodded, "I would know."

Kitty took her word for it.

"When you were taken from the Club last year," Kitty said, holding Emma's gaze squarely. "Is there any chance Shaw had something to do with it?"

"The thought has crossed my mind," Emma admitted as she locked a silvery strand of hair behind her ear, revealing an arrow of delicate diamond studs.

"I'll find out as much as I can Thursday," Kitty promised.

"Be careful," Emma warned. "Don't force his hand by making yourself expendable."

Kitty let out a breath, "Will you be there?"

She shook her head, "Not at the Club, but I'll stay close by."

"And if I need you?"

"I'll know."

With that final promise, Emma took her leave. Kitty debated reentering Xavier's office but thought better of it, instead weaved her way upstairs and found her bed. She shed her bar clothes and crawled between the sheets, exhaustion overtaking her, and finally, for the first time that day, muting her dread at the prospect of facing Sinister once again.


	7. Chapter 7

**_Present Day_**

 ** _New York_**

Kitty lifted her head from the pillow at the feel of Victor pulling back the sheets and slipping into bed beside. She turned on her side, laying a hand across his naked chest, "What time is it?"

"Late," he replied, adjusting the sheets around his waist.

She frowned at his drawn expression, "You look angry."

"I didn't even know you left the Institute tonight."

Kitty sat up, meeting Victor's dark gaze, rubbing some of the sleep from her eyes.

"You were downstairs with Logan, I didn't want to interrupt-"

"Bullshit," he snapped, his voice deceptively quiet. "You snuck out."

"I _went_ out-"

His expression warned her not to continue.

"You left without telling me, and-"

"You're not my keeper," she said, her voice calm despite cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Don't," Victor pointed a single warning finger at her. "Don't start this argument again."

Kitty shifted away from him, surprised by his vehemence.

"I thought we resolved all this," she said quietly.

Victor let out a breath, "I just spent the last two hours reliving every second of it with fucking Agent Wisdom."

"I'm sorry."

Victor shook his head at her apology, "You could have been hurt, or worse-"

"But I wasn't," Kitty replied.

"And if you were, how would I have known where to start looking?" Victor demanded, taking her chin between his fingers, forcing her to face him. "If I didn't know where you were in the first place, how would I even know you were gone?"

Kitty's shoulders dipped, "You wouldn't."

"Do you understand why I'm angry?" He asked, finally calm enough to draw her into his chest, arms closing around her back. Kitty let her eyes drift closed, warm in his embrace, her senses full of him, her body instantly at peace.

"I didn't think we'd find any trouble," she said, the steady pump of his heart reassuring against her cheek.

"I know," he said.

After a few minutes of silence she blurted the question she'd been asking herself since her run in with Pierce.

"What could Shaw want?"

Victor ran a hand over her curls as he replied, "I'm not sure, baby.

"It can't be good," Kitty said.

Victor's mouth tightened into a thin line as he shook his head, "No, it can't be."

Kitty's eyes fluttered closed, lulled by the safety of Victor's arms.

"Sleep," he said, lips against her temple. "We'll talk more in the morning."

"I thought you said you were going to keep me up all night," she smiled, sleep beginning to creep up on her.

Victor let out a low laugh, "I like you conscious, little kitten. Sleep. We'll have plenty of time in the morning."

"It is the morning," Kitty yawned, the clock face reading nearly five a.m. on the bedside table. Victor pulled her closer, massaging her scalp with slow strokes. She was asleep within minutes, curled against his chest, as he watched dawn break, pearl pink through the curtains against the windows.

Kitty awoke a little after eight. Victor had drifted off to sleep somewhere after seven, exhaustion finally quieting his racing thoughts. Kitty slipped out of bed, careful not to wake him, adjusting the sheets around his bare shoulders.

The kitchen was empty, the students already in their morning classes, and most of the team either teaching or sleeping off the previous nights events. Kitty drank a cup of coffee, standing by the wide windows along the back of the house.

"Morning, professor."

She turned, Pete was at the opposite end of the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Kitty," she replied around a sip of coffee. "My name is Kitty."

He smirked, joining her at the window. He smelled like aftershave and cigarette smoke, his hair, still damp from the shower wetting his collar.

"Why are you here, Agent Wisdom."

"Pete," he corrected her. "Just Pete."

"Pete," Kitty repeated. "Why are you here?"

"MI-13 thinks it's in everyone's best interest to move Sinister abroad."

Kitty's brow wrinkled in confusion, "The Raft is perfectly secure."

Pete lifted a shoulder, one hand in his pocket, the other hefting his mug of coffee, "MI-13 isn't arguing that."

"Then why move him."

"We believe he'd be better off in our facility."

"Crossmore," Kitty said.

"That's the one."

"Have you told the Professor, and Logan, this is why you're here?"

Pete nodded, "I shared the news with everyone last night, after you stepped out with the White Queen."

Kitty ignored the bait, pressing on regarding MI-13's stake in Sinister's relocation.

"If there hasn't been any issue, why move him?" She asked. "Why take the chance?"

"From what I understand, he's not much of a threat at the moment. In prison or out of it," Pete replied, shooting her a pointed look.

Kitty shook her head, "He's a dangerous mutant to underestimate."

"I've read the files, Kitty."

She looked up at him, "He's a monster."

Pete shook his head, "I mean _your_ files."

Kitty frowned, "What are you talking about? I don't have any-"

"MI-13 has a file on every mutant in existence, British or otherwise."

Kitty sipped her coffee, expression unreadable.

"You locked the inhibitor cuff around his heart," Pete said, looking down at her. Impressed, in spite of himself. She was silent at his side, eyes on the expanse of lawn sprawled in front of them. "You took an incredible risk getting that close to him. Regardless of the abilities you picked up from Frost-"

Kitty stepped away from him, unsettled at the breadth of his knowledge, both curious and terrified to know how much was locked away in MI-13's mutant files.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Pete commented quietly.

"I'm not," she replied shortly, setting her cup aside.

"Then what is it?"

She matched his step towards her with another step back. Pete's smile twisted into a smirk at her hasty retreat, "I read you were Creed's property."

Kitty's head snapped up, eyes narrowed, "I'm his mate."

Pete sipped his coffee, "Doesn't seem to be much of a difference to me."

She saw her relationship through his eyes. Victor manhandling her on the porch, his gruff commands.

"You don't know the first thing about me," she said, leveling him with a cool stare. "Regardless of what you read in my file."

"I know enough," Pete replied, meeting her stare boldly. "I know you're next to none in hand to hand combat, I know you can fix anything with an electrical current running through it. And I'd wager a guess rum and coke makes you hot, and that's why you let me come on to you last night."

The air was trapped in Kitty's throat at his quiet assessment. She felt her cheeks grow hot under his steady smirk, despite her best efforts to remain unfazed.

"You're a bastard."

Pete smirked, shaking a cigarette from the pack in the breast pocket of his shirt, "I'm honest."

Kitty opened her mouth to retort but thought better of it, plunking her coffee cup down on the counter, she turned to go.

"There's one thing that wasn't in your file."

She hesitated in the doorway, shooting him a glare over her shoulder, torn between wishing she'd just kept walking about wanting to hear him out.

"Why are you afraid of the dark."

Her whole body stiffened, "What are you talking about."

"Your files stated you have a deathly fear of the dark," Pete said, looking her over carefully. "I want to know why."

"Go to hell."

He let her stalk from the room, her coffee cup forgotten on the counter, her ass like something out of one of his better wet dreams as she disappeared out of sight. He stepped onto the back porch, lighting his cigarette and squinting against the early morning sunlight. He released a sigh, squeezing his eyes shut, banishing the image of her ass from his mind. He knew, without a doubt, Katherine Pryde was going to complicate his entire mission, whether he wanted her to or not.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Present Day**_

 _ **New York**_

Victor wasn't in bed when she returned upstairs. The sheets had been kicked to the end of the mattress, the pillow holding the indent of his head. Kitty laid a hand flat to the sheets, the were still warm from Victor's body.

"Kitty."

She turned, Rogue was framed in the doorway, sweaty from her morning run, her hands freed of their gloves. It was the only time Rogue went without them, her long pale fingers exposed.

"Morning."

"Where is Victor going in such a hurry?"

Kitty frowned eyes flicking from the bed to Rogue, "I didn't know he left."

"I passed him on the road," Rogue replied, eyes flicking to her watch. "Maybe five minutes ago."

She shook her head, "He didn't say anything to me."

Rogue opened her mouth, and then shut it, unsure of what to say.

Kitty ran a hand through her hair, fumbling for her phone lost in her duffel bag, "I'll call him."

She punched in his cell number, waiting. Something buzzed nearby. Rogue lifted Victor's cell from the bedside table, frown finally dissolving into concern.

"Something's not right," Kitty stood up, dropping her phone on the unmade bed.

"Where's Logan?" Rogue asked, as they made their way downstairs. "Maybe he knows what's going on."

"It's possible," Kitty said, mind racing at the possibilities- the danger- Victor could be hurtling towards. "Why would he leave without telling me?"

"It must have been something important," Rogue replied.

"But what?" Kitty murmured, pushing open the doors to Xavier's office.

Logan was hunched over Xavier's desk.

"Logan."

He looked up, his expression telling her everything she needed to know.

"Where did he go."

"Half-pint."

Rogue tried to slip her hand into Kitty's but Kitty pulled away, moving towards Logan.

"What's going on?" She demanded, looking between Logan and Xavier. "He left without telling me, without his phone-"

Logan was quiet, trying to decide where to begin. Something prickled in the back of Kitty's mind, dread washing over her, "Why didn't you come looking for us last night."

Logan scrubbed a hand over his face, "We were out tailing Shaw."

"Logan!" Rogue cried, stepping forward. "You didn't tell me that."

"I didn't want you to worry," he replied, reaching for her hand. She jerked backwards, lifting her naked fingers. Logan retracted his hand, expression drawn.

Rogue's focus switched to Kitty, her glare lessening to a frown, "How did you know they were up to something."

Kitty rubbed her forehead, a headache splitting through the center of her skull, suddenly, painfully.

"Logan-"

"What is it," Logan demanded, catching her under each arm as she wavered on her feet.

"I need to lay down," she murmured. "My head is aching."

Logan lifted her bridal style into his arms, Rogue close to his side.

"I'm putting you to bed, half-pint," he said, his voice a dull rumble against the pounding of her head. "We'll discuss Victor when you wake up."

Kitty's eyes flew open, "The longer we wait-"

"What's going on?"

Pete was blocking their path to the stairs, eyes on Kitty.

"Move," Logan growled.

"Logan," Rogue hissed.

"What happened?" Pete demanded a second time.

"She has a headache," Rogue replied, hand on Logan's arm, warning him to play nice. "Logan's taking her to bed."

Pete's brow rose at her choice phrase, but he managed to swallow his smirk, and step aside.

Logan muttered something about _fucking nosy pricks_ which Pete chose to pointedly ignore.

"Logan, what about Victor-"

"I'll do what I can while you rest," Logan assured Kitty, quieting her panic. He laid her across the bed, as Rogue pulled the sheets up and around her shoulders. "I'll take care of what needs to be done."

"Where is he going, Logan," Kitty asked, eyes finding his.

Logan breathed out a long sigh, "To see Frost."

Rogue frowned, "Emma? But why?"

"To update her on what we saw last night," Logan replied. "Shaw was with Stryker-"

Rogue's head jerked up, " _Stryker_?"

Kitty squeezed her eyes shut, interrupting Logan's answer, "It's a trap."

"What are you talking about."

"I can feel it," she said quietly. "He's heading right for Shaw, not Emma."

Logan and Rogue exchanged a look over Kitty's prone body. Kitty let out a low moan, hand moving to her forehead as the pain turned her vision first fuzzy and then to total darkness. She closed her eyes, ignoring the panic flaring at the edges of her consciousness.

"Rogue," she murmured.

"I'll stay with her," she motioned for Logan to go. "You deal with Victor."

"I'll send Hank up."

Rogue nodded, moving onto the mattress beside Kitty, pulling a heavy sweater off the back of her nearby desk chair. Logan watched her wrap it around her body so she could lay close to Kitty without endangering her. He reached out, touching her chin briefly to lift her eyes to him, "I love you."

Rogue smiled, some of the worry lifting from her expression. Logan strode from the room in search of Hank, and answers for Kitty.

Within minutes Hank was at Kitty's doorstep. It didn't take him long to determine Kitty needed to be moved to the infirmary. With Logan's help he transported her downstairs, and began monitoring her vitals. Logan paced the hallway outside, his unease growing with each prick of Hank's needles, and new wire attached to Kitty's body. Rogue sat by Kitty's side, her gloves recovered to each hand so she could hold Kitty's between her own.

"She's going to want answers when she wakes up," Rogue said, poking her head into the hallway. It had been at least an hour and a half since Hank had moved Kitty downstairs.

"I know," Logan replied, finally standing still, eyes on Rogue. She was beautiful, fresh faced from her run this morning, her auburn hair tied up in a ponytail. "I'll find Xavier."

"We'll come for you as soon as we know something," Rogue promised.

Logan nodded his agreement, disappearing down the hallway to find Xavier and determine how right Kitty's predication had been.

Hank entered Xavier's office late in the afternoon, his glasses pushed up off his eyes to sit atop his head, one stem snarled in his dark hair.

"What's wrong with her?" Logan demanded before Hank had a chance to so much as open his mouth to speak.

"More of Emma's powers are manifesting," he replied. Logan's expression blackened, biting back the words _because of you._

"We suspected this would happen," Xavier intervened calmly, sensing Logan's fury.

"You said Kitty asked where you'd been last night?" Hank prompted, eyes on Logan. "Without any knowledge of you leaving the Institute."

"Emma's psionic powers," Xavier's brow furrowed. "Why are they only manifesting now."

"Kitty hasn't needed them until now," Hank replied.

"Christ," Logan squeezed his eyes shut. "Is she going to be alright?"

"Her body needs to adjust to these new powers," Hank replied. "She needs rest, but she'll be fine."

"Is Rogue still with her?" Xavier asked.

Hank nodded, "Rogue offered to stay while I continue running tests. Anything on Victor?"

Logan's shoulders sagged a fraction, from fatigue or frustration Hank wasn't sure, "Nothing yet."

"When she wakes up, she's going to-"

"I know," Logan ground out. "I know what she'll be like."

Hank nodded, stepping out of the room without another word.

"What does Shaw want with Victor?" Logan demanded quietly, for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour.

Xavier sighed deeply before replying, "I'm not sure."

"Maybe she's wrong about Victor, and he's with Frost."

Xavier shook his head, "If Kitty has truly tapped into Emma's psi abilities, there's little chance she's wrong about this."

"Frost is the most powerful psi mutant on the planet."

Logan jerked around at the sound of Pete's voice.

"More powerful than you," Pete added, eyes on Xavier as he stepped into the room.

Xavier nodded gravely, "It's true. Her powers are remarkably strong for someone so young."

"How much of them did Kitty absorb," Pete asked.

"It's hard to say," Xavier said. "Hank injected some of Emma's genetic sequencing into Kitty's. I'm not sure it's possible to gauge just how much of Emma's mutations Kitty has inside her."

"If they keep manifesting like this, they'll kill her," Pete stated bluntly.

Logan snarled, lunging for the other man's throat. Pete raised his arm, fingers elongated, vibrating with power, a warning to step down. Logan stopped short, his own silvery claws peeking between his knuckles.

"Watch it," Logan warned quietly, all too willing to challenge Pete's hot knives for a chance at wrapping his fingers around the other man's throat.

"Logan," Xavier said, his tone calm but firm. "Agent Wisdom is right, if Kitty doesn't learn to control these powers she's a danger to herself, and everyone around her."

"We need to find Frost," Pete said. "She's the only one who will be able to help her."

Logan snatched his worn out jacket off the back of a nearby chair, slinging it over his shoulders as he headed for the door, "I'll find her."

"I'm coming with you."

Logan turned, ready to argue, but Xavier intervened, "Just go, both of you."

Both men eyed each other with thinly veiled hostility for another moment or two, before filing out of the office to track down the White Queen.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Present Day**_

 _ **New York**_

Kitty woke from her migraine induced sleep a little after six o'clock. Her vision was still hazy, even as she rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes. She tore free of the three remaining sensors Hank had attached to her forehead and arms, and slipped her legs over the edge of the bed.

She plunged forward, putting too much faith in her own strength, straight into the arms of Agent Wisdom.

"Jesus, woman-"

"Let go-"

Kitty made an attempt to phase but her body rejected the call, too weak to tap into her mutation without sending her back into unconscious oblivion.

"Easy, Kitty," he murmured, as he gently hoisted her back onto the bed, pressing her head between her knees. "Just breathe."

Kitty did as he asked, breathing in and out until she felt well enough to sit up.

"What are you doing down here?"

"Relieving Rogue," he replied.

Kitty narrowed her eyes, "Rogue wouldn't have left you down here with me."

Pete stepped back, easing into the chair he'd been occupying alongside her bed, "No, she wouldn't have. She's upstairs talking to Logan, I took the liberty of coming down to keep watch over you."

Kitty ran a hand over her unruly curls, "How long have I been out."

"A few hours," Pete replied, checking his watch to confirm his assessment.

"All I remember is getting a headache," Kitty said. "What's wrong with me?"

"Hank will have a better answer for you then I will."

"I don't care, just tell me what's going on."

Pete rubbed a hand over his face, "From what I understand, more of the powers Emma shared with you are manifesting."

Kitty's brow wrinkled, her mind moving over the minutes before she collapsed. Finally, "Her psi abilities."

Pete nodded, "Xavier said as much."

"I don't understand how," Kitty shook her head. "I've never tapped into them before."

"Because you needed the power?" Pete hedged.

"I knew Logan was lying."

"How?" He asked.

"I'm not sure," she shook her head. "I can't tell where Emma's power begins, and my instinct ends."

"Maybe it's one in the same," Pete offered.

"I want to see Hank."

Pete stood up, "Don't try and follow me."

Kitty settled back against the pillows at the top of the bed, waving him towards the door, "I'll stay right here."

As promised, Pete returned with Hank in tow.

"How are you feeling?"

Kitty sat up with a grumble, "Like I've spent too much time down here in the last year."

Hank pulled up a chair, adjusting his glasses.

"What's wrong with me."

"Wrong?" He frowned. "There's nothing wrong with you."

"Then what happened upstairs," Kitty said, hand to her forehead. "I've never felt anything like it."

"What did you feel?"

"Like my forehead was going to split wide open," she replied.

"Your body was reacting to the stress of using, or in this case, misusing your psi abilities. It's a mutation you've never tapped into before today," Hank explained calmly. "It's natural that your body wasn't able to handle it."

"What if it happens again?" Kitty said. "I don't even know how I used it the first time, how will I know what to do next time?"

"Emma is upstairs," Hank replied. "Logan asked her to come see you."

"Train you," Pete corrected, shoulder against the doorframe.

"You need to learn to use these new abilities," Hank said, ignoring Pete's interjection.

"Safely," Pete added quietly.

Kitty bit her lip at the sound of Emma's name, stifling fury or tears she wasn't quite sure, her fears realized.

"I was right," she said quietly, chin dropping to her chest. "He wasn't meeting with Emma. It was a trap."

Hank patted her shoulder, mouth set in a grim line. Kitty stayed that way, head bent, Hank's large hand covering her shoulder, for half a minute. When she lifted her head some of the usual fire was back in her eyes.

"I'd like to see Emma now," Kitty said, gaze skipping between the two men. "And I want an update on Victor once we're done."

Hank nodded, "I'll bring her down."

"And Victor," Kitty reiterated, tone firm. "Please."

Hank nodded, "Logan will be down after Emma."

"I'd like to see her alone," Kitty said, eyes on Pete, still lounging against the doorframe. He straightened, taking his cue to follow Hank upstairs.

Emma appeared in the infirmary shortly after, coat open from throat to thigh to reveal a chocolate sweater and twinkling belt.

"Tell me what happened."

Kitty eased herself into an upright position, "One second I was talking to Logan, and the next I had the strangest feeling that he was keeping something from me."

She rubbed her face, "I got an flash of him and Victor driving. It was dark, they were in Victor's truck. I don't know where it came from, I've never driven with the two of them-"

"That's because it wasn't your memory," Emma explained patiently. "You dipped into Logan's mind as you were talking to him."

She shook her head, trying to clear it, afraid to delve too deep into the memory, for fear of bringing on another headache.

"You followed your instincts, you sensed he wasn't telling the truth," Emma said, occupying Hank's old seat. "And your powers did the rest."

"They _over_ powered me," Kitty said quietly. "I would have collapsed if Logan hadn't held me up."

Emma nodded, unfazed by Kitty's story, "If your telepathic abilities are as strong as mine, they're going to overwhelm you until you learn how to control them."

"How do I learn to control them?" Kitty asked, accustomed to her own physical mutation, wary of tapping into a mental one.

Emma smiled, "The same way you learned to control your intangability."

Kitty narrowed her eyes, "Are you listening to my thoughts."

"Not all of them," Emma replied. And then, "That didn't hurt, did it?"

"Hurt?" Kitty frowned.

"When you enter someone else's mind, you run the risk of harming not only yourself," Emma said, expression serious. "But the other person, as well. You need to learn to probe gently."

Kitty's eyes widened with panic, "Is Logan-"

Emma lifted a hand, "Logan is fine."

"I've seen you enter mutant's minds before," Kitty said slowly. "With the intention of hurting them."

"Yes," Emma said, unashamed. "The gift we share is incredibly powerful. We have the power to harm, as well as the power to heal."

Kitty shook her head, "What's the difference."

She shuddered at the thought of routinely entering other's minds, probing for memories and information, or altering realities with astral projections and mind control. She remembered the haunted look in Victor's, after he'd found Emma's astral projection meant to trick Sinister into thinking he'd killed her.

 _"I held you," he said, teeth clenched tight enough to crack._

 _Kitty's good arm lifted, "It wasn't me, Victor."_

The memory, burned in her brain, exposing the fine line between good and necessary evils.

"What you use it for," Emma replied calmly.

Kitty let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, her senses overwhelmed by the prospect of learning to craft and control a new mutation.

"How did you learn to control it."

"Practice, and meditation," Emma said. "But now, it comes second nature to me."

Kitty let out a gusty breath, "Practice."

"The most important thing you can do is learn to tap into your powers," Emma said. "Don't let them tap you."

Kitty was quiet, contemplative.

"What are you thinking?" Emma asked.

"How will I know the limitations of my powers?"

"You test them," Emma replied simply. "The Danger Room is a good place to start."

"I'll do that," Kitty said. Disappointed, but unsurprised, there was no quick fix to managing her burgeoning powers. "I'd like to see Logan."

"I think he'd like to see you too," Emma said, standing up and buttoning her coat with efficient fingers. "Your meeting with Shaw is tomorrow."

"Yes."

"You'll need your strength back before then."

"I know," Kitty said.

"Logan told me about Stryker."

"Did you know?" Kitty asked. "About Shaw's involvement with Stryker?"

"No," Emma shook her head. "It's just as much of a shock as his plans to liberate Sinister."

"It explains why Sinister was able to infiltrate the Club to abduct you," Kitty said. "More likely than not, Shaw led him right to you."

Emma's lips tightened into a scowl, "It seems that Sebastian has been planning to overthrow me for a long time."

"We need to determine exactly how long," Kitty said. "We need to know how much he knows about Stryker and Sinister's plans. He may only be a pawn in their larger game."

"Be careful how much you reveal to him tomorrow," Emma warned. "We'll want as much ammunition as possible to use against him when we bring him before the inner circle."

"I won't mention Stryker unless he does," Kitty promised. "Now, I need to see Logan."

Emma let out a sigh, nodding, "Keep it short."

"Thank you."

Emma turned, framed in the doorway, head tipped to one side, "For what."

"Coming to see me when Logan called."

"I told you once before," she said quietly. "We're bound. I couldn't have stayed away, even if I wanted to."

Kitty let her disappear from the room without another word, squeezing her eyes shut, counting her breaths to stave off her growing panic. Controlling another mutation wasn't something she'd bargained for.

"Kitty."

Rogue was slipping into bed beside her, as Logan pulled up a chair, their presence instantly erasing her rising panic. Kitty accepted Rogue's hand squeezing hers.

"How are you feeling?" Logan demanded gruffly, his hair standing on end from running his fingers through it too many times.

"Better," she said, expression wary. "Where's Victor."

"We don't know," he said quietly.

"We haven't heard from him, or anything about him, since he left this morning," Rogue added.

"He left his cellphone," Kitty murmured. "He wouldn't have left it behind if he wasn't instructed to do so."

"It'll slow down us tracking him," Logan said. "But it won't stop us."

"Do we have any leads?" Kitty asked.

"Emma didn't know anything about it," Logan said, sitting back, arms folded over his chest. "If he's with Shaw, it's not at the Club."

"He wouldn't take him there," Kitty shook her head. "There's too much turmoil as it is with his proposal."

"The question is, did Shaw seek him out because he knows what we saw last night, or is this part of his preparation for your meeting tomorrow," Logan said.

"What did you see last night," Rogue asked.

"Shaw left the Club a little after twelve o'clock," Logan said. "We tailed him to the outskirts of Saratoga. He met with Stryker at a hole in the wall pub. Mostly human crowd, no mutants that would have recognized him."

"And he didn't see you?" Kitty said.

Logan sighed, "We didn't think so."

"Then we don't tip our hand," Kitty said. "If he doesn't mention Stryker tomorrow, neither do I."

"And if he does?" Rogue pressed.

"Then we'll know that his kidnapping Victor was about retaliation," Logan replied.

"But what if it wasn't," Kitty frowned. "What could he want with Victor."

Logan let out a frustrated growl, "I don't know."

"Why is Stryker using Shaw?" Rogue shook her head.

"We're going to have more questions before we start getting answers," Kitty said wearily, head falling back against the pillow against her will.

"You need to rest," Rogue said.

"I'd like to sleep in my own bed," Kitty murmured sleepily, tilting her head to catch Logan's eye. "Please."

Logan nodded his affirmation, standing up and sweeping both arms beneath her petite frame. He lifted her to his chest, aware of Rogue's eyes on each crux of skin on skin contact between the two.

"Come on, darlin'," he inclined his chin towards the door. Rogue stood, leading the way back upstairs to Kitty's old room. Logan laid her down, turning off the lights, and shutting the door behind him. Rogue was in the hallway, rubbing her hands up and down her arms, expression worn. "It's been a long day," Logan said quietly. "I can carry you to bed next."

Rogue tried to swallow her smile, as Logan wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Logan-"

He picked her up before she could protest any further, careful to keep face away from his bare arms and neck. She rested her cheek lightly to the front of his t-shirt, content to feel the pulse of his heartbeat against her skin. Pushing away the prickle of jealous at the ease in which Kitty's skin swept over his.

"Take me to bed," she said, green eyes lifting to his. Body aching for all the things they weren't able to do. She'd come to control her mutation enough for a brief kiss, but any more than that and her walls fell apart, leaving Logan vulnerable to her mutation. As he carried her to bed she mused over how easily Kitty's body had assimilated Emma's mutations, wondering absently if there was a mutation out there to counter act her own.


	10. Chapter 10

**_Present Day_**

 ** _New York_**

Daylight was just beginning to spring up along the edges of her room when Kitty awoke the next morning to a dull headache. She massaged her temples, eyes closed against the pain. Deciding coffee and aspirin were her best options, she slipped out of bed and to the kitchen. The classrooms along the first floor chorused a murmur of voices as she past by, Rogue and Logan were in the kitchen, dividing a pan of bacon and eggs between their two plates.

"Morning," Kitty said, heading straight for the gurgling coffee pot. Rogue lifted the pan of bacon and eggs in offering. Kitty shook her head. The front door of the Institute opened and slammed shut, vibrating through the quiet house. Pete appeared, moving purposefully through the doorway, cheeks red from the cold, his jacket smelling of smoke, eyes on Kitty.

"Mail for you," he said, a manilla envelope in his hands.

"Mail?" Kitty repeated, frowning.

Logan was out of his chair immediately. The envelope had Kitty's name in block letter across the front, sealed with the unforgettable devil red seal of the Hellfire Club.

"Shaw," Kitty murmured, fingertips tracing the waxy crest, heart kicking up against her ribs.

She ripped open the seal with shaking fingers, withdrawing twin sleeves of parchment paper, a photo slithered out from between them and onto the floor. Rogue stooped to retrieve it as Kitty inspected the mouth of the envelope for any further paperwork. Tucked in the bottom corner of the envelope was a piece of parchment, she recognized it as the same paper Shaw's proposal had been scrolled across. Across the front were written three words:

 _162 Shunpike Lane_

It wasn't a street she was particularly familiar with, but she recognized it as close to the downtown area. She laid the envelope aside.

"There's nothing else," she lied, lifting her head, eyes on the photo in Rogue's hand.

Rogue placed the glossy photo on the kitchen table. It was Victor's truck, the front bumper smashed in, the windshield buckled from the impact of whatever the car had come into violent contact with.

"No man could have survived that," Pete murmured.

"He's alive," Logan growled. "We'd have a photo of the body if he wasn't."

"Logan," Rogue hissed, eyes darting from him to Kitty. Her cheeks were pale, her blue eyes widened, making her appear more childlike. Pete had to fight the urge to draw her head to his chest, his fingers clenched to fists at his sides with the effort it took to keep his hands to himself.

"I think it's safe to say Shaw has him," Logan said, rubbing a hand across his face. " _Fuck_ , it's too early for this."

"That's one less thing to wonder about," Kitty murmured, eyes stuck on the photograph in front of them. She lifted it from the tabletop, taking a closer look. She finally raised her eyes with a shudder, "How am I supposed to face him, knowing he has Victor. Knowing he _took_ Victor-"

"If you want to see Creed again, you'll go," Pete replied.

Kitty shot him a withering look before turning the photograph over, looking for more details, but the page was perfectly blank.

"Creed doesn't strike me as an easy man to take," Pete said quietly.

"It doesn't look like it was easy at all," Rogue replied, gesturing to the carnage in Kitty's hand.

Logan turned to Kitty, expression grim, "Shaw is too dangerous-"

"Don't," Kitty warned, instantly looking up to glare at him. "I don't want to hear it."

He shook his head, "After what happened yesterday-"

"You want me to ignore this?" Kitty demanded, lifting the photograph fully into his line of sight. "You want me to leave Victor to Shaw, and Stryker-"

"If it means keeping you safe, then-"

"No!" Her voice was halfway to a shout, startling Logan into silence. "I let you railroad me into staying home, and standing by, because my powers were on the fritz once before. I won't do that again."

Logan's mouth compressed into a thin line.

"You can't go alone," Rogue said.

"If he wants something from me, it's in his best interest to keep me alive," Kitty replied. "I won't be in any danger."

"You can't know that for sure," Rogue said.

"Rogue is right," Pete said, catching Kitty's gaze with a meaningful expression. "You'd be a fool to go alone."

"I'm going," Kitty said firmly, collecting the photograph and envelope, and heading for the door. "And that's final."

At Kitty's request Emma arrived at the Institute at five o'clock. She managed an astral projection of Kitty to throw the others off her scent long enough for her to leave the Institute unencumbered. Her plan worked. At a quarter after six Kitty was cutting across the lawn, past the security system and on her way to the train station. At Emma's suggestion she'd dressed to distract. Her dark hair was piled atop her head, showcasing her slim shoulders, exposed by the strapless cut of her leather dress.

" _Don't_ fidget," Emma snapped mildly each time Kitty's hands had dipped to the hem of her mini dress. "You'll look nervous."

"I'm not," Kitty replied. "Let me see the projection."

Emma concentrated, within the span of a second Kitty was staring at her double. Disconcerting wasn't a strong enough word to describe the feeling of staring yourself in the face outside of a mirror image. Emma absorbed Kitty's expression, and in turn smiled.

"What happens if I touch her?" Kitty asked quietly.

"I'll manage your senses to make you think you have," Emma replied simply.

"So there's nothing there?" Kitty said, looking over her double.

"No," Emma said. "I've tricked your mind into thinking something exists in that space, that in fact, does not."

Kitty let out a breath. Reminded, once again, of the well of power inside of her that she needed to come to control.

"You'll learn," Emma said confidently. "In time, you'll learn."

Kitty repeated these words in her head as she navigated the train, and short walk to the lounge Shaw had named as their meeting place. The cool air stung her bare legs as she walked. Kitty pulled the flaps of her jacket tighter around her upper body, cursing Emma for her outfit choice, as she finally arrived at the pub.

Pulling off her jacket as she surveyed the inside, Kitty noted it was particularly quiet, the perfect location for a secretive meeting. The bartender was an aging man with a mean smile and snaking scar down one side of his face. He handed her a whiskey sour and motioned to an empty corner of the bar.

"Where's Sebastian Shaw?" Kitty asked quietly, certain the bartender was in the know.

"Arriving shortly," the man replied, motioning once again to the far end of the room. Kitty picked up the drink, and moved through the gloom. Within seconds of her sitting down Shaw appeared, amber drink in hand.

"Katherine Pryde."

She ignored the urge to shift under his stare, keeping herself perfectly still as he sat down beside her. Aware of his gaze flicking from her delicate ankles stacked in heels, to the stretch of thigh just below the leather hem of her dress, and finally to the wings of her exposed collarbones. She willed the blood from her cheeks, refusing to award him any upper hand.

Kitty didn't bother with a mutual assessment, confident Shaw would understand the snub for what it was; and judging from his tight lipped smile she was rewarded with this first small victory.

"You're looking well."

She tilted her head, "Why wouldn't I be."

"Absorbing Emma's mutation is no small feat, Ms. Pryde."

" _Mutations_ ," Kitty correctly quietly, blue eyes burning into his over the rim of her cup. She saw Shaw squirm for a millisecond before regaining his unflappable calm.

"Why am I here?" She asked, the drink in her right hand starting to sweat, his interest in her newfound powers piquing her instinct to bolt.

"I have a proposition for you."

She brought the whiskey to her lips, wetting them, holding Shaw's gaze, "I'm listening."

"The Hellfire Club is in need of a new Queen."

It took everything in Kitty's power not to laugh at the irony of his words.

"Has Emma Frost stepped down?"

Shaw shook his head, "No."

"I don't understand," Kitty lied. Thankful Shaw was without Emma's incredible psi abilities.

"Frost no longer has the Club's best interests in mind," Shaw replied shortly.

Kitty accepted his answer with a nod, asking in turn, "Who did you have in mind."

"You, Ms. Pryde."

"You can't be serious," Kitty said, emitting a small laugh at the absurdity of his proposal. "An X-woman sitting on the inner circle, as _Queen_ no less?"

"I think you'll find the arrangement mutually beneficial," Shaw replied, his smile a frightening cross between calculating and charming.

Kitty understood with damning certainty that Victor's abduction was much larger than the Hellfire Club, and Shaw himself. Victor's disappearance wasn't in retaliation, it was Shaw's ticket to replacing Emma, and the power to veto his proposal, with a Queen he could control. He was banking on Kitty's desire to save Victor, to use her as a pawn in his game to work alongside Stryker in freeing Sinister.

But _where_ did Stryker's motives fit in to all of this?

Shaw's gaze was on her face, brow wrinkled at her prolonged silence, Kitty jerked herself out of her inner monologue, suddenly remembering how little she was meant to know.

"What does this have to do with Victor." Kitty demanded, pushing aside her fury to feign confusion.

Shaw sat back in his chair, sipping his drink, "If you're interested in Victor's safe return to the X-men, you'll partner with me."

"And if not?" Kitty hedged.

"I can't promise his fate."

"What are you saying?" Kitty demanded softly, blue eyes slitting. "Victor's forfeit if I don't agree to your terms?"

"Something like that."

"Don't play games with me," she snapped, whiskey hitting the table at her side, amber liquid sloshing over her fingers at the force.

"It's a proposition."

"It's blackmail, Shaw. And you know it-"

"It's time you determine where your priorities lie, Ms. Pryde," he replied, finishing his drink.

"Fuck you."

His brow lifted, he let out a laugh, "I see the kitten does have claws."

"You're threatening my mate."

"No, I'm giving you the opportunity to save him," Shaw replied. Kitty had the delicious urge to phase her half done whiskey through his smirking face. She tamped down her rising temper, trying to focus on the task at hand.

"Why me?" Kitty demanded.

"You are the most powerful mutant of your generation," Shaw said. Kitty fought the urge to shrink back when he leaned closer, cheshire grin stretched across his face, "There is no better choice."

"Who's to say you won't kill Victor, even if I agree to become Queen."

Shaw sat back in his chair, expression unreadable, "We would sign a contract."

"So nothing more than a piece of paper would stand between Sinister and Victor."

He looked affronted.

Kitty shot him a wry smirk, "What contract did you sign with Emma Frost that's allowing you to revolt against her?"

Shaw shook his head, "There's nothing that says a King can't seek out a new Queen."

"Or a Queen can't seek out a new King," Kitty added softly.

Shaw's expression shifted, and Kitty saw a glimmer of uncertainty.

"I suppose that's true," he allowed.

Kitty sipped her drink, mind spinning.

"You won't have any control over me once you've released Victor," she said, after a few moments of silence. "Have you thought of that?"

Shaw was silent, watching her.

"Once I'm Queen, and you fulfill your end of the bargain, who's to say we'll see eye to eye on the Club's needs."

"You'll find, Ms. Pryde. I can be very persuasive."

At his murmured promise Kitty felt the first fission of fear trail down her spine.

Shaw rose from his chair, "I've given you much to think about."

"Those pictures you sent," Kitty said quietly, eyes burning into his as she stood up. "Is he hurt."

He stared down at Kitty, impressively tall despite her heels.

"Creed is more useful to me alive."

She suppressed a shudder, refusing to think about what Shaw- or Stryker for that matter- had in mind for him. Afraid, that taking part in Shaw's game would leave Victor in no less danger than he was in right now.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Shaw gave no reply, instead took his leave, "I'll be in touch."

She let him disappear, downing the last of her drink and picking up her jacket. His presence at her side was quickly replaced by a familiar mutant who led her to the exit, his webbed fingers holding open the door for her to stalk through. She muttered her gratitude over one shoulder and stepped out into the night. The street was dusky, spotted with aging streetlights humming with bugs and spider's handiwork.

"Bastard-"

"Meeting didn't go quite as planned, love."

Kitty jumped at the closeness of the voice, body instantly tensing defensively.

"Relax."

She smelled Pete's cigarette before she laid eyes on him, lounging against the bricks of the building just past the doors she'd thrown open.

"What are you doing here."

"Keeping watch."

"On what," she snapped.

"You."

"I'm not interested in a babysitter."

Pete gave no reply, dark eyes drifting down her body. He let out a low whistle. "Banger of a dress-"

Kitty held up a warning finger, "Don't."

Pete lifted both hands in surrender as she yanked her jacket over each shoulder.

"I'm surprised Logan's not with you," Kitty said, letting out a breath.

"He was too busy trying to figure out how you hot-wired your way out of the Institute without anyone noticing."

She shrugged one leather clad shoulder, "I created the security system. I know all the loopholes."

"Logan said as much," Pete replied.

"He's probably hiring a new security manager as we speak," Kitty said, with a wry smile.

"That's if he's finished reading Frost the riot act."

Kitty groaned, "How long did it take for him to figure out it wasn't me?"

"Not long," Pete replied. "Something about your scent."

She rolled her eyes, "Ferals."

"The true test was when I made a grab at your ass and you didn't fly off the handle-"

Kitty swung at him, fist narrowly missing his cheek. Pete clapped a hand around her wrist, biting back a smirk, "Relax."

She phased through his grip, shooting him a glare.

"What did Shaw say?" Pete finally asked, eyes on the taunt line of Kitty's shoulders.

"He wants me to become White Queen," she said tiredly. "In exchange he would sign an agreement to release Victor safely to the X-men."

"A neat agreement?" Pete's brow lifted. "From Sebastian Shaw."

"It doesn't sit right with me either," Kitty replied.

"There's a catch somewhere in there," he agreed.

Kitty nodded her head, expression softening, her fury ebbing to fatigue. Shaw had only increased the burden weighing on her shoulders, and she wasn't a minute closer to having Victor safely home again.

Pete put a hand to the small of her back, sensing her sadness, "We should get you home."

Kitty opened her mouth to argue, but instead nodded, "Fine."

"Agreeable looks good on you, Pryde."

She rolled her eyes, allowing him to escort her home for the second time that week.


	11. Chapter 11

**Present Day**

 _ **New York**_

Kitty and Emma stayed in the conference room long after the meeting. Logan had been one of the last to leave, sniffing around Emma as he did, indifferent to Kitty's glare.

The room finally emptied, leaving the two of them alone with Kitty's laptop and spread of paperwork. Kitty reached down, unzipping her wedges and kicking them off her feet, wiggling her toes, reveling in the freedom.

"They don't trust me," Emma commented, toying with the velvet high top of her boot.

"Do you blame them?" Kitty said, her fatigue making her more candid than usual. She massaged her temples, fighting the headache looming at the center of her forehead.

"More headaches," Emma said.

"Stress," Kitty said. "This has nothing to do with my mutation."

"Your mind is trying to tell you something," Emma replied. "Don't fight it."

Kitty's heart rate kicked up at the prospect of losing control again, blackness crept along the edges of her vision.

"I can't-"

"You can," Emma replied, her tone brooking no argument. "Close your eyes, relax."

Kitty dropped her hands to the tabletop, letting her eyes drift shut, focusing on the flutter of memories hovering just outside her consciousness rather than fighting off the headache. Her body relaxed, her heart rate evened out, her mental probe extended. Like a silvery arm it arced and slipped between the blurred line of conscious and subconscious, Kitty watched its progress with interest, buoyed by her mind's perceived physicality of the mutation. Adjusting her inner eye to focus not on her physical body, but on the manifestation of her mental probe.

An image rippled into focus. Victor.

"Focus," Emma instructed, sensing Kitty's emotions rising to the surface once more, threatening the integrity of the probe. Kitty steadied herself, understanding the memory had been collected during her meeting with Shaw, unbeknownst to her, waiting for the right moment to surface. "What do you see."

"Victor," Kitty said, fingers curling into the table top in an effort to remain calm. "He's chained."

"Where is he."

"Somewhere dark, a cell-"

"Focus," Emma repeated.

Kitty pushed deeper into the memory. Heavily armed men, human men, guarded the cell. Sunlight was slanting through the latter half of the room, a clock was hanging on a far away wall, she gauged the direction of the light to the time of day.

"He's on the East coast."

Emma made a noise of encouragement, and Kitty delved back into her minds eye, trembling at her progress. It was another half a minute her blue eyes snapped open.

"His cell is directly above water. I can smell the surf, there's snow," Kitty said. She continued her description, eventually placing Victor's cell along the cost of Lake Ontario. Her mind flipping through images of furrowed maple and oak trees, limbs spindly with age and winter.

She saw clearly through Shaw's eyes, as he grappled with Victor, taunting him with the knowledge of their meeting. Victor's expression at Shaw's news terrorized her out of the memory, leaving her shaken. His eyes had gone black with fury, his fingers curling into the bars of his cell tight enough to leave his knuckles white as bone. His contorted face shouting obscenities faded from her mind, the echo of Shaw's maniacal laugh disappeared into nothingness.

"He was telling Victor about our meeting," she relayed quietly. "Victor was furious."

Emma's expression was somewhere between fascination and awe when Kitty's gaze met hers.

"I think you were born to inherit these gifts, Kitty."

Kitty took a breath.

"Does Shaw know I've taken this from him?"

"You haven't taken anything," Emma replied. "You've simply borrowed a copy."

"But could he know-"

Emma frowned, "It's hard to ignore a mental probe. Especially one he wouldn't have expected."

Kitty's gaze slid sideways, "He mentioned your mutation, he seemed impressed."

"Impressed," Emma repeated.

"You don't think he handed me this memory?" Kitty pushed on, doubt niggling in the back of her mind. Uncertain of her ability to extract this memory, this kind of precision to detail on her own. "Purposefully, I mean."

"That's impossible," Emma said. "It's outside of the scope of his power."

"It seems too easy," Kitty admitted quietly.

"You're an incredibly gifted mutant, Kitty," Emma said. "This should serve as further proof."

"What if it's a fluke," Kitty interrupted. "What if I'm seeing what I want to see-"

"Because you know the difference between memory and daydreams."

Kitty lifted her eyes, meeting Emma's gaze, accepting this truth, accepting her own burgeoning superiority.

"Responsibility, Kitty," Emma said quietly. "Is what it comes down to. A responsibility to your own truth, and to finding the truth in others."

"Even when they don't want to share it willingly."

"Especially when," Emma corrected.

Kitty took a steadying breath, "We need to save him."

"Yes."

"Shaw promised to turn him over to the X-men if I agreed to his proposal," Kitty said thoughtfully. "He said he would be s _afely_ returned."

"And you believe him?" Emma asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"And what of your safety?"

"He didn't threaten me," Kitty replied, mind working through Shaw's angle. Shaking her head she added, "But there's a catch, I just can't put my finger on it."

"If you agree to his terms, and become Queen, he'll hold Victor's life, and the lives of all the X-men over your head to get what he wants."

Understanding dawned, "He'll use me to force his proposal through the inner circle."

Emma nodded, "And once it's through, and he's free, your power and Sebastian's will be forfeit to Sinister."

Kitty ran both hands through her hair, Emma's words singing true.

"Your queenship, your power in the Club, would be overruled after Sinister's release and you, and the rest of the X-men, would be at Sinister's mercies."

Making her queen was Shaw's temporary solution to edging Emma out of the picture in order to pass his proposed plan to release and crown Sinister king of the Hellfire Club. Kitty was to be a temporary pawn in his larger game.

"Unfortunately for Sebastian, you already know what he's planning," Emma said.

"Knowing what his plans are for Sinister doesn't change the fact that he has Victor," Kitty replied.

"No," Emma allowed. "But it gives you enough perspective to know that agreeing to Sebastian's offer of Queen isn't saving anyone."

Kitty's shoulder sagged, defeated.

Emma continued, "Once Sinister is free-"

"He won't be released," Kitty correctly cooly, chin lifting.

"I've learned to never say never, where Sebastian Shaw is concerned," Emma replied.

Kitty was silent.

"We need to consider Stryker's stake in all this," Emma reminded her.

"To finish what he began with Sinister?"

"Aside from equipping Sinister with mutations, what was their end game," Emma said.

Kitty shrugged, "It never came to fruition."

"Stryker has no love for the mutant population, why would he be working closely with Sinister, and now Shaw?"

Kitty mulled this over, brow knit.

"You don't think he has plans to wipe out mutants."

Her head jerked up at Emma's murmured suggestion, a denial on her lips.

"Think about it."

Kitty stood up, collecting the paperwork strewn across the table top in front of her.

"What other purpose would Stryker have for supporting Sinister's experiments?"

"Science," Kitty offered quietly, hopefully.

Emma let out a snort, "That wasn't science, it was murder."

"Stryker must know he has no control over Sinister," Kitty said. "Even if they succeed in wiping out the mutant population, he'd be left to take out Sinister."

"I believe," Emma said quietly. "That's where you come in."

Kitty's head snapped up, brows knit, "What are you talking about."

"Shaw is working too hard to tie you to the Club," Emma said. "I think he wants you to act as safeguard against Sinister becoming too powerful after his release."

"That's ridiculous," Kitty shook her head, curls starting to spring loose from the confines of her bun. "I barely defeated him last year-"

"But you did," Emma reminded quietly, icy eyes holding hers. "And it seems Stryker, nor Shaw, has forgotten it."

 _"Why me?"_

 _"You are the most powerful mutant of your generation. There is no better choice."_

Kitty shivered at the memory of Shaw's words, gathering up her laptop and manilla folders, "I can't talk about this anymore."

"Get some rest," Emma suggested. "In the morning we'll discuss Victor."

"You know as well as I do we can't go after him," Kitty snapped, her eyes filling with tears despite her best efforts to remain stoic.

Emma let out a sigh, "I know."

"Tomorrow we move forward with our plan to overthrow Shaw," Kitty said, picking up her discarded jacket and slipping begrudgingly into her discarded wedges. "It's the best we can do."

"Until tomorrow, then."

Kitty rode the elevator upstairs, parting ways with Emma at the foot of the sweeping staircase to the upper levels of the Institute. She shimmied out of her dress and shoes, crawling between the sheets, closing her eyes, willing Victor's furious face from her mind. Fighting the pinpricks of guilt creeping up her spine.


	12. Chapter 12

**Present Day**

 ** _New York_**

Kitty slept restlessly. At a quarter to six she gave up tossing and turning, and made her way to the kitchen for coffee. Pete was on the porch smoking a cigarette, eyes on the periwinkle horizon.

She poured two cups, edging the door open with her hip and extending a steaming mug to him, "Good morning."

"Morning," he replied, nodding his thanks as he accepted the mug from her hand. She didn't linger, allowing the door to snap shut behind her as she moved back into the warmth of the house. Gathering her laptop and ever growing stack of paperwork regarding Shaw, Stryker and Sinister, she posted up in the conference room, glasses perched low on her nose, coffee humming through her veins.

Pete gave her two hours of solitude, waiting until the steady stream of students passing through the kitchen on their way to class trickled to none. He rapped his knuckles on the door as he turned the handle, ignoring her annoyed huff at his interruption.

"What is it?"

"Easy, professor," he said, flashing her a grin. He closed the door behind him, despite her glare, and dropped into the nearest chair.

Kitty removed her glasses, rubbing her eyes, "What do you want, Pete."

"I want to help."

She let out a low laugh, expression somewhere between disbelief and disinterest.

"I mean it," he said. "Until Creed is back, you'll need someone watching yours."

Kitty stilled, finally meeting his gaze from across the room, silently weighing her options, and his suggestion.

"Yes," she finally conceded.

"I can be that person," he said, his expression turning serious. "If you'd let me."

She opened her mouth to argue but Pete held up a hand, "Hear me out."

Kitty sat back in her chair, arms folding over her chest, expression expectant, "Well?"

"We want the same thing," he said. "Sinister behind bars, and Stryker eliminated."

"You make it sound so simple."

"It is."

"Not with M13 hellbent on transferring Sinister overseas-"

Pete waved away her concern, "A minor detail."

"Bullshit," Kitty shook her head. "You think if we pair up you're one step closer to convincing us to move Sinister to the location of your choosing."

"You're not wrong," Pete replied with a shrug. "But, M13 isn't the bad guy in this situation, Kitty. And neither am I."

She let out a sigh, "There is no safe prison or place for Sinister with people like Stryker vying for his release."

"Then lets work together to eliminate that threat," Pete said.

"We already are."

"No," he shook his head. "You're too busy fighting M13's relocation plans to treat me as anything but a pain in the ass."

Kitty was silent, he had her beat on that point.

"I need you to let me in," Pete said quietly. Her cheeks heated, under his steady gaze or at his suggestion she wasn't sure.

Ignoring the flush creeping up her neck, Kitty gave him a singular nod, "Fine."

"But, more importantly, if you're going through with your plans for the Hellfire Club, you'll need someone backing you up."

"I have Emma."

His expression tightened a fraction, "Someone you can trust."

"How do you expect this mission to go as planned if you can't trust any of us?"

"I trust you."

Kitty made a noise of frustration, "Pete-"

"I trust you," he repeated, enunciating each word as a standalone sentence. He palmed the crushed pack of cigarettes at his breast pocket. "I swear."

She regarded him skeptically, her brow knit, uncertainty blurring the line between duty and desire.

"If we do this," Kitty finally conceded, halting at his grin. "I said _if_ -"

Pete held up both hands in surrender, swallowing his grin, "I heard you."

"We do this my way."

Her parting words to Emma come full circle.

"Your way?" Pete repeated.

"Yes."

He shook his head, "You're not going to play the martyr, Pryde. I won't let you-"

Kitty sat back in her seat with a groan, "You sound like Victor."

Pete smothered a surge of annoyance with a shrug, keeping his tone benign, "This won't be much of a partnership if you end up dead."

"Don't be dramatic."

"I don't think you understand just how angry Shaw is going to be when he finds out what you and the ice queen have planned."

Kitty made a face, "Emma."

"I'm serious," Pete said, ignoring her expression. "He's going to retaliate."

"That's why we need to move quickly."

Pete's brow quirked, "We."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Once this is over, you'll agree to the X-men discussing Sinister's transfer?"

She looked ready to argue when Pete broke in, "You said it yourself, Stryker is the real threat. What does it matter where Sinister is holed up, as long as he stays that way?"

Kitty mulled it over, finally, "Fine."

Pete rose from his chair, closing the some of the space between them to stick out his hand, "Partners."

Kitty followed his lead, slipping her hand into his firm grip when she was within arms length of him, "Partners."

"Emma will be here soon," Kitty said, extracting her hand.

"Shaw is going to catch on to your little alliance if you're not careful," Pete said at the sound of Emma's pending arrival. "She's spent more time here in the last week than at the Club."

"That's why we need to move quickly," Kitty reiterated, gathering her belongings to her chest.

"What's our next move."

"Motioning to dethrone Shaw," she replied. "What I still don't understand is where Shaw factors in to all of this."

Pete leaned back, stretching, aching for nicotine, "He's expendable."

"You sound sure of yourself."

"He's a zealot," Pete replied, lifting his file and flipping through page after page of Shaw's history of violence. "He's willing to forfeit his own power, even his life, in exchange for the release of a mutant he idolizes as a God."

"You think Stryker is using him to release Sinister, nothing more?"

"Stryker has no love for mutants," Pete replied. "He partnered with Sinister because he believed Sinister had the power to wipe out the mutant population on this continent, maybe even the world. And now he's partnered with Shaw to ensure his alliance with Sinister wasn't for nothing."

Kitty shuddered.

"If he still believes Sinister is his best bet for wiping out mutants, there's no way he's letting go," Pete continued. Kitty was quiet, eyes on the paperwork before them. Finally he asked, "What about Creed."

Fragments of her vision from the previous night came back in rippling waves. Victor chained to the walls of his cell like an animal, subjected to Shaw's taunts with nowhere to go, and no way to wrap his fingers around the other mutant's throat.

Pete's hand settled heavy on her shoulder, smelling of smoke and winter, "I'm sorry I asked."

Kitty avoided his dark gaze, skirting around him towards the door.

"Pryde."

She paused, fingers on the door handle.

"We'll get him back," Pete said quietly. "I promise."

She was the first to look away, something and hot and heavy unfurling in her belly. She chalked it up to Victor's absence, slipping away before her cheeks grew any redder.


	13. Chapter 13

**Present Day**

 _ **New York**_

Emma arrived within the hour, ready to set a date for their upheaval of the Club.

"If we can't go after Creed until we've made an attempt at taking out Shaw-"

Emma's cool gaze landed on Pete, cutting him off she said, "There is no attempt, Agent Wisdom. We have one shot at blocking Sebastian's proposal and we will succeed."

Pete gaze went to Kitty.

"Emma's right," she said shortly, elaborating no further.

"My point is that we need to move on Shaw within the next forty-eight hours," Pete said, shooting both women exasperated looks.

"The longer we wait on Shaw, the longer Victor is in danger," Kitty agreed.

Logan grunted his agreement, "It has to be tomorrow night."

"Are you ready?"

All eyes went to Kitty at Emma's question, bathed in the shallow light of her computer screen, her glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose as her fingers flew across the keyboard. When she looked up her gaze was steady, her voice firm, "Yes."

"Tomorrow night it is," Pete said, slapping his hands to the tabletop.

"Ten o'clock," Emma said. "I'll call the meeting."

"Where should I meet you?" Kitty said.

"At the Club, of course."

"How will I find it?" She demanded as Emma moved to leave the room.

"Meet me on the corner of Main and Fifth Street," Emma replied with a smile. "I'll show you the way."

At eight o'clock the following evening Kitty arrived on the corner. Emma was waiting, dressed head to toe in sparkling white she drew the eyes of every man who passed by. She surveyed Kitty's matte ruby lipstick, satiny pumps and long black dress with a slow smile, "You certainly dressed the part."

She led Kitty down Fifth Street, and around a corner to a strip of dark alley. Kitty squinted against the night, eyes widening as the entrance to the infamous Hellfire Club materialized before her. The twin doors were heavy oak, wrought with the metal insignia of the club. Kitty wondered at the amount of concentrated power it too for Emma to keep the entrance hidden from humans and mutants alike.

"Only Club members know its location, and how to enter," she explained. "Otherwise it looks like nothing more than a dead-end."

"Your powers are incredible," Kitty said.

" _Our_ powers," Emma corrected. She pressed her palm to the center of the doorway, murmuring a single word under her breath. The wrought iron crest unhinged to break in to, allowing Emma to push open the doors for them to enter. She led Kitty down a velvet draped hallway to a high ceilinged chamber. "We'll wait here until it's time."

"What if Shaw finds us?"

Emma shook her head, "He has his own chamber is adjacent to this one. He won't come in here."

Kitty settled uneasily into one of the overstuffed armchairs, eyes on the clock against the far wall.

At the exact tick of ten, Emma stood, beckoning Kitty to follow. The main room was long and deep, with a massive table running down its center. Around the table sat the inner circle. Kitty recognized a handful of mutants, while others none at all. The hum of voices picked up at the sight of her, and Emma's arrival.

When Shaw appeared in the doorway shortly after, the room growing noticeably quiet. Kitty met his gaze squarely, his jaw tightening at the sight of her and Emma at the head of the table. He strode purposefully through the room, eyes never leaving Kitty. It was clear from the set of his jaw, and his white knuckled fists, he understood Emma's intent in calling a meeting. And more so, he knew what Kitty had to do with it.

When he reached the opposite end of the table his gaze finally descended on Emma, with a vicious smirk he growled, "You stupid bitch."

"Sit down, Sebastian," Emma said, pushing back her chair to stand. In her upright state, commanding the room, she was transformed into something out of norse mythologies, with her white blonde hair and crystal eyes. Kitty was grateful, in that moment, they were on the same side. Emma lifted the gavel stationed at the table before her, banging it soundly against the wood, the room went instantly quiet, attention zeroed in on Emma and Kitty. "We've called you here under dire circumstances."

Emma surveyed the room, as a queen would her court, "As you all know, Sebastian Shaw has plans to release Sinister from The Raft."

Emma met the eyes of her supporters meaningfully as she continued, "I was taken by Sinister less than a year ago, I saw firsthand the atrocities he committed against our kind. And I have no doubt, were he released, he would only seek to continue where he left off."

Kitty was certain, the sound of her heart pounding a samba against her ribs, was audible from every corner of the room. Emma let the silence hang, allowing her words to sink in, giving each member of the inner circle a moment to ruminate on Sinister's return- and the potential consequences.

"If Sebastian Shaw seeks to move this proposal forward, I ask he do it without the consent of the Club," Emma finally announced. "I demand that he do it without our support, or our resources. I motion he be removed from his place at King, as he is unfit to retain the safety and sanctity of the mutant population."

Murmurs rose up around them, as they assembled group realized what Emma was preparing to do.

"And in his place, I nominate Katherine Pryde."

Every member of the inner circle turned to Kitty, sizing her up, some thoughtful, others incredulous.

"You nominate an X-man to sit on the inner circle of the Hellfire Club?" Shaw demanded, shaking his head. "You're a fool, Frost."

"I've seen what Sinister is capable of," Emma said, expression hardening. "I'm not willing to let you release him from The Raft. And I'm certainly not willing to give him rule over the Club upon his return."

"You're letting your fears dictate your decision making," Shaw said, with a shake of his head. "You're not thinking in the Club's best interests."

"Like hell," Emma snarled.

Kitty stepped forward, taking a single steadying breath, "Sinister is the most powerful mutant of the twenty-first century."

Shaw folded his arms over his chest, expectant, "Finally, something we can agree upon."

She pinned him with a cool smile, "I was the one that brought him down."

Something shifted, Kitty could feel it in the air. She had purposefully redrawn herself as more than a member of the X-men, but as a mutant capable of subduing greater mutants, of extinguishing threats. Kitty had elevated herself to be more powerful than not only Emma, but Shaw as well. She felt, more than saw, Emma suppressing a smirk beside her.

"It was my plan, and my powers that subdued him long enough to be taken into custody, and transported to The Raft for imprisonment," Kitty said.

"Need I remind you, it was Sinister who broke into our own Club," Emma added quietly. "Under Sebastian's command."

"You are as much to blame for that as I am" Shaw snapped, fighting his temper as the two women easily batted his credibility into the dirt.

"There is one final piece of information I would like you to consider," Emma said, addressing the inner circle, eyes roving the arc of chairs spread to her right and left. "Something that Sebastian failed to include in his proposal. Sebastian has allied with the human William Stryker."

Voices rose on either side of them, outraged, confused, disbelieving. Emma held up her hand, "I have proof of their communications, and their involvement in Sinister's prison break."

Shaw's expression was frozen, somewhere between fury and shock, "How- how did you-"

"It was Sebastian who allowed Sinister to gain entrance into the Club to kidnap me," Emma said. "And it is Sebastian now who would ask that you trust your lives to a mutant hellbent on mutilating his own kind. I ask you put your faith in another mutant. A far superior mutant."

Kitty lifted her chin, grace under the pressure under more than a dozen stares.

"The circle needs to convene," one man stood, Kitty vaguely recognized him as the White Rook. Emma nodded, gesturing for Kitty to follow her. "We ask you return to us in exactly three hours time."

"Until then," Emma said, shutting the heavy doors behind Kitty and herself, while Shaw stalked to the doors from which he'd come.

"That was incredible," Kitty murmured.

" _You_ were incredible," Emma corrected, scooping up her hair and twisting it into an artful chignon at the base of her neck. As she secured her hair with a long pin she let out a sigh, "Now, we just have to hope we were convincing enough."

"Shaw barely got a word in," Kitty said.

"There wasn't much he could have said," Emma replied.

"He had no idea you knew about Stryker."

"That was our ace of spades."

Kitty slid her damp palms down the sides of her dress, trying to calm the steady race of her heartbeat, "I've never seen him so angry."

Emma smirked, "Sebastian has always hated surprises."

Exactly three hours later a knock broke through the silence. Kitty had been meditating, as per Emma's suggestion, trying to extract any memories she may have gleaned from Shaw, or any of the other mutants around the table, during their meeting.

"Nothing," she sighed, eyes blinking open.

"That's a good sign," Emma said. "It means you're learning to control your probe."

Kitty shrugged, indifference, "My lack of control is what located Victor."

Emma said nothing, crossing the room, and motioning for Kitty to follow.

"What happens if the inner circle turns down your motion?"

Emma paused, hand to the doorknob, "Sebastian may execute us."

Kitty let out a breath. Emma opened the door, entering the room, shoulders square and chin lifted, looking every bit the Queen she hoped to be after the inner circle's decision was announced. Kitty followed Emma's lead, displaying a confidence she certainly wasn't feeling as she crossed the room, expression perfectly placid. Shaw was across the table, palms flat to the wood, expression black. The inner circle had been expanded to include all the members of the Club, mutants dressed in somber tones of velvet and lace lined the walls. It was like stepping back one hundred years in time, Kitty marveled at the assortment of members.

The White Rook pushed back his chair, addressing the room in a somber tone, "After much deliberation, we believe it is in the best interests of the Hellfire Club, and our vested interest in the survival of the mutant population that Mister Sinister remain behind bars. Furthermore, in an effort to ensure the imprisonment of Sinister, we agree to the White Queen's motion to remove Sebastian Shaw from our circle, and in his place elect Katherine Pryde as Black Queen."

Shaw was vibrating with fury, his finger extended to aim directly at Kitty's heart, "You'll live to regret this."


	14. Chapter 14

**Present Day**

 _ **New York**_

"Now what?" Kitty said.

Emma was putting the finishing touches on her sprawling signature, it was nearly six o'clock in the morning.

"We go for Victor," Emma said, replacing the quill in the ink well, eyes on their freshly inked contract.

"So it's done?" Kitty said, eyes on their twin signatures. Emma's performed with a practiced hand, accustomed to ink and feathered pens. She inspected her own signature, gauging the strength, the confidence in each swooped letter.

"You are the Black Queen."

Kitty met Emma's gaze, cheeks growing warm under her proud stare.

"Yet again, Ms. Pryde," Emma said, with a smirk, stamping the Hellfire crest to the bottom of the page in dark wax. "You have proved yourself to be the superior mutant."

"You trust Shaw to leave peacefully?"

"I trust the inner circle to secure his removal," Emma replied. "Peacefully or not, he will be removed."

"Then lets go."

They exited the chamber, placing the necessary calls to alert the other's their plan had been a success and it was time to extract Victor.

The jet was waiting for them not far from the Club. They climbed aboard side by side. Logan looked up, expression unreadable, "Half-pint."

"Success?" Pete said, eyes on Kitty. She was the perfect foil to Emma's white gold presence. The high slit traveling up the right side of her black dress revealing the sleek muscles of her legs, showcasing the slimness of her ankles. Pete felt his whole body surge with awareness of her delicately displayed figure.

"You're looking at the newest Queen of the Hellfire Club," Emma replied.

"I need to change," Kitty said, shifting uncomfortably under the weight of the team's stares.

"We're proud of you, Kitty," Xavier said.

"We're happy you're still alive," Logan growled.

"Logan," Rogue hissed.

"We've narrowed down Victor's location," Pete said, indicating a map spread out across the table before him. Kitty looked it over, finger tracing the eastern shore of the lake.

"We'll split up," she said. "Four teams should be enough."

"Go get ready," Pete said. "I'll take care of this."

Kitty disappeared into the back of the jet, shedding her dark dress and pumps. She fingered the collar of her battlegear, running the pads of her fingers down the yellow stripe across the chestplate. Finally succumbing to the reality of finding Victor, and whatever that might mean.

Within the hour they were dropping off the first team, comprised of Jubilee, Scott and Jean.

"We'll take the next drop," Kitty said, indicating Emma and Pete. Logan grunted his dislike, which Kitty ignored.

"Logan and I will take the one after that," Rogue said, fingers twining with Kitty's as she added. "We won't be far if you find anything."

Kitty nodded, fingers tightening around her friend's.

Before long Hank was maneuvering the jet over dry land, allowing the trio to exit. They headed north, mucking through grassy marshland as they searched the shoreline for any signs of Shaw, or Stryker. The first three buildings they entered were a bust. It was the forth that caught Kitty's attention.

"That window-"

She pointed upwards, indicating a high window at the right angle to catch the projection of the sun she saw in Shaw's memory.

"You recognize it?" Emma said.

"I think so," Kitty replied, moving faster through the high willow grass. Pete and Emma barely kept up, slogging through the deepening mud as they neared the building. The main door was ajar, it bore the marks of heavy bolts recently removed. Kitty's fingers traced the scars, "This is it."

Pete frowned, "How can you be sure-"

Emma waved away his concern, following Kitty as she moved towards the heavy staircase adjacent to the doorway. They cleared the first landing, and Kitty continued upwards.

"I'll check this floor," Pete announced from below. Emma nodded her affirmation. Kitty's feet his the upper floor, dejavu hit her with the force of a gale force wind. Her chest constricted, lungs shrinking, mouth bone dry.

"This is it."

Emma stepped around her, willing to check the space for any evidence of violence before Kitty recovered enough to do it herself. There was a narrow cell against the far wall, the rungs bore the marks of Victor's claws. Aside from the gashed metal there was no sign of struggle, or Stryker.

"There's nothing," Emma shook her head, blonde hair catching flecks of sunlight. Kitty's shoulders sagged, with relief, quickly followed by frustration.

"Where could he have taken him?"

"Sebastian must not have wanted to take any chances," Emma replied. "Now that he knows just how far your new powers have progressed."

"He moved quickly," Kitty said with a shuddering breath.

Pete appeared at her back, the palm of his hand pressed to her spine, moving her gently aside so he could fully enter the room.

"The second floor is clear."

"There's nothing," Emma said as Pete neared her side.

"Nothing," Pete repeated, disbelieving.

"He wasn't taking any chances," Emma said. "They cleared out the entire facility, top to bottom."

"Now what?" Kitty demanded softly.

"We regroup," Emma replied confidently, chin lifted in the face of Kitty's despair.

"He may already be dead," she said.

"There's nothing here to suggest-"

"There's nothing here period," Kitty interrupted, expression shifting to fire. The skin bared by her uniform started to shimmer, diamond white textiles snaking over her skin.

Pete shot her a look, a gentle warning, "Pryde-"

"If he's dead it's my fault."

Emma took a step closer, "Kitty-"

"I made the call to go after Shaw first," she continued, hand to her chest, her heart aching at every beat. "I left him here-"

"He's not dead," Pete interrupted, closing the distance between them and catching her by each shoulder. "You made the right call in removing Shaw from the Club. If we'd come after Victor we would have blown our chance of taking over, and ousting Shaw before he could move forward with his proposal."

Kitty shook her head, blue eyes vacant, stuck to the front of Pete's shirt. He gave her a shake, forcing her gaze upwards, demanding her full attention, "You made the right call."

"But, Victor-"

"Being a leader isn't about saving people, Pryde. It's about doing what needs to be done."

Her chin tipped to her chest as his words resonated with her.

"Pete-"

Emma's voice filtered through her misery.

"Pete, your hands-"

Kitty lifted her gaze to his grip on her shoulders, stiffening at the sight of blood.

"Pete!"

He released Kitty, holding his palms in front of him, eyes on his shredded skin.

"What happened," Emma demanded, moving closer.

"Kitty's skin-"

Kitty took a step back at his words, gaze shifting downward. Her uniform was gently shredded in places, and completely torn in two in others. The skin peaking through was covered in low spikes, glittering like cut glass.

"What's happening to me," she murmured, lifting her arms to further inspect the rough skin breaking through the spandex of her uniform. Pete's eyes tripped over her freshly exposed skin, catching on the cut of her hip, and curvature of her breast.

Emma cleared her throat, watching Pete's face, "Leave us."

He jerked his eyes off Kitty, "I'll contact the others."

"Tell Hank to turn the jet around," Emma said. "We need to return to the Institute."

Pete stepped towards the door, brought up short by Kitty's blue eyed stare.

"Someone needs to take care of your hands," Kitty said, her splintered skin already starting to smooth over, the shimmer slow to die out. She reached out, taking his hands at either wrist, turning them over, eyes suddenly wet. "I'm so sorry, Pete-"

"Don't," he said fiercely. "Don't start that."

She shook her head, swallowing the emotion pressed tight enough to choke at the back of her throat, "I'm sorry."

"It looks worse than it is," he assured her quietly. Kitty heard Emma making the call to Hank over Pete's shoulder.

"What's happening to me?" Kitty said quietly.

He didn't have an answer, so he kept his mouth firmly shut, allowing her fingers to tighten around his wrists, clinging to him like a lifeline.

"They'll be outside in ten," Emma announced, stepping closer. "Everything is alright, Kitty."

She nodded mutely, fingers still linked to Pete's skin, his blood starting to seep down her wrists.

"She's in shock," Emma murmured, assessing Kitty's ashen cheeks and blank stare. Pete shook free of her hold on him, scooping her into his chest and nodding towards the door, "Lead the way."

Emma retraced their steps, taking in every corner of the room for clues as to where Shaw and Stryker had gone next. Kitty stayed pressed to Pete's chest until the jet arrived. Logan was at the top of the ramp, eyes narrowed on Kitty's shredded uniform, "What happened."

Pete eased her into the other man's arms, understanding his place in the hierarchy without further instruction.

"Half-pint."

"He's gone," Kitty murmured into the side of his neck, eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"What happened," Logan repeated, more of a demand the second time around.

"Her powers are still growing," Emma replied, unpacking the medical kit strapped to the jet's wall. She indicated a nearby chair, "Pete-"

He sat down heavily, hands splayed across his knees, eyes on Kitty tucked safely in Logan's arms. Emma bent over his lap, carefully cleaning the wounds with antiseptic wipes from the medical kit, balancing bandages and surgical tape on her lap.

"Now what," Rogue said quietly, smoothing curls back from Kitty's forehead, brow knit with a frown.

"We need to get a tail on Shaw," Logan said.

"It's done," Emma replied. "I assigned a shadow before our meeting tonight even began."

"Smart, girl," Pete said, ignoring Emma bristle at his endearment. She rubbed the antiseptic across his shredded skin a fraction harder than necessary. "Easy-"

She shot him a wry look, gentling her motions.

"When will you have a report on his location?"

"Within the hour," Emma replied. "Once we have that we can go after him, and hopefully find Victor in the process."

Kitty murmured something against Logan's shoulder.

"She needs to rest," Rogue said, surveying the cabin of the jet, silently asking for Victor's name to be left alone for the time being. Pete's gaze caught on Kitty, unable to pull his eyes away until he felt Emma looking up at him. He cleared his throat, focusing on the far wall, and Emma returned to tending to his injuries, head bent, expression unreadable.


	15. Chapter 15

**Present Day**

 ** _New York_**

Hank took one look at Kitty's tattered uniform and Pete's badly bandaged hands, and wordlessly motioned them towards the infirmary. Kitty was still tucked to Logan's shoulder, dark lashes sooty against her pale skin.

"What happened?"

Emma sat down heavily in one of the chairs against the wall, watching Logan maneuver Kitty onto the hospital grade bed at the center of Hank's domain.

"Kitty's body is growing the powers we shared with her," she replied, eyes on Hank. His blue fingers touched the edge of her ruined uniform, brow furrowed.

"Growing?"

"When we didn't find Victor her diamond form became more than a protective armor," Emma said.

"She erupted," Pete said, slowly unwinding Emma's wrap job, blood already starting to seep down his wrists.

"Erupted," Hank repeated, keeping his expression as neutral as possible, methodically hooking sensors to Kitty's skin.

"She looked like a shattered mirror," Pete said.

Logan's hands tightened to fists at his sides, eyes on Emma, "These powers are too much for her, you never should have-"

Emma lifted a hand, silencing him, much to Logan's furious dismay, "Kitty's body has adjusted incredibly well to this surge in her new mutations."

"It's a miracle she's still alive," Logan ground out from between clenched teeth.

"I agree," Emma replied, gaze steady. "Her body has taken the powers I shared with her and shifted them to suit her needs."

"How is turning into broken glass helping anyone?" Pete demanded, finally free of his bandages, glaring up at Emma.

"These powers stayed dormant for almost a year," she continued. "At the risk of Sinister's release they surfaced to save us."

"She doesn't look saved," Logan snapped, jabbing a finger at Kitty, perfectly still atop the bed.

"She looks alive," Emma replied.

Logan stepped forward prepared to argue or bash Emma's head through the wall, he hadn't quite decided yet when Kitty's voice piped up, "She's right."

"How are you feeling?" Hank asked, stepping away from the blinking lab equipment along the far wall to return to her side.

"Tired," she replied. "Like I did after my psi abilities manifested."

"Anything hurt?" He asked, fingers pressing her joints, lifting and rotating different pieces of her body, waiting for any pain response.

Kitty shook her head, eyes returning to Logan, "These powers are surfacing for a reason."

He stared obstinately back, jaw clenched to crack.

"It's not what I expected, what any of us expected, but it's happening," Kitty continued, voice growing stronger with each word. "My body is preparing for Sinister."

Logan's eyes squeezed shut, "Stop-"

"She's right," Emma said. "There's nothing suicidal about these manifestations. Kitty's powers are breaking out for a much greater purpose."

"I defeated him once," Kitty said. "I'm ready to do it again."

Logan's dark eyes met hers, defeat written in the lines of his face.

"These powers are necessary," she said quietly.

"They're dangerous," Logan replied, eyes shooting to Pete's hands.

"Pete-"

He shook his head, "I'm on your side, Pryde. If Sinister is freed we're going to need a hell of a lot more than an inhibitor cuff to bring him down."

"Logan," Kitty said, reduced to the thirteen year old she'd been the first time he'd laid eyes on her. Dark hair in a ratty ponytail, eyes circled blue-black from lack of sleep, expression earnest as Xavier described her mutation with words like _power_ and _gift_ and _warrior_.

Logan let out a long breath, chin dropping to his chest for half a minute before he finally muttered, "What do you want from me, Half-pint."

Kitty eased off the bed, yanking out most of Hank's sensors in the process to wrap both arms around Logan's waist. She inhaled his scent, rife with sweat and cigar. Logan's hand lifted, palm pressed to her unkempt hair, his cheek to the top of her head. They stayed that way until Kitty disengaged, some of the color returned to her cheeks, resolve crystallized in her eyes.

"Victor is our new priority."

"Don't forget about Stryker," Pete said, wincing as Hank drew his needle through his skin again and again. "We're still trying to figure out his connection with Shaw."

"Leave that to me," Emma said.

"What about the Club?" Kitty said, frowning, the knowledge of her new Queenship coming back to her. "Is there anything we need to do?"

"I'll take care of it," Emma said. "I'll call if I need you."

Kitty nodded, watching Emma leave the room in a flash of crisp white.

Logan released a low growl at her departure.

"Don't," Kitty warned, shooting him a level glare. "Without her we'd be at Shaw's mercies."

"Without her you wouldn't be _erupting_ ," he snapped, moving past her and leaving the infirmary, the door snapping shut behind him.

"I'm going to the conference room," Kitty said.

"How long are you planning on walking around half naked?" Pete demanded, eyes on the far wall, avoiding Hank's ministrations. Hank ignored the comment, keeping his gaze on his work.

Kitty looked down at herself, her uniform ripped in too many places to count, revealing flashes of downy skin. She let out a sigh, "Find me when you're through."

Pete nodded his understanding, gaze never leaving the corner of the room.

Emma called shortly after Pete was released from the infirmary.

"Shaw is moving north."

"Do you think he's preparing to meet up with Stryker?"

"I would imagine," Emma replied. "He has nowhere else to go now that he's been barred from the Club."

"Do you think Victor is with Stryker?"

"We won't be sure of that until Sebastian reaches his destination."

"You're sure he doesn't know he's been followed?" Kitty said, rubbing a hand across her face, sleep deprived and disenchanted at Emma's lack of news.

"No," Emma said, confident, sure of herself as ever. "He has no idea."

"Call me when you have news."

"You do the same."

Kitty disconnected, shoulders slumping forward. It was nearing seven o'clock in the evening, her body was convinced it was pushing three a.m.

"You need to lay down," Rogue said, taking in Kitty's dark circles and bleary gaze.

"I will, after I talk to Pete."

Rogue motioned to the porch, Pete was at the railing, in nothing but his white button down and cigarette smoke. Kitty pressed open the door, joining him at the railing.

"How are your hands?" She said, eyes on the stark white bandages.

"Been better," he replied honestly.

"Your mutation-"

"Perfectly fine," he interrupted her concern. "I tested it."

Kitty nodded, "I'm glad."

There was silent in the gathering darkness. Pete's voice broke the quiet.

"You're one helluva a woman."

Kitty tilted her head, meeting his gaze. Nothing between them but the smoke from his half done cigarette. Something hummed in the air, sparking heat, hot and heavy in the pit of her stomach. She was first to look away, curls tripping over her shoulders at the movement.

"It's late."

She turned to go, Pete watched her go, every muscle in his body coiled to spring. He ached for her to turn around and give him an opening, anything.

"I love Victor."

It was as though she'd read his mind.

He let out a smokey breath, expression unreadable, "You're not telling me anything I don't already know."

"I wanted to be clear-"

"You're safe with me, Pryde," he interrupted, standing, eyes on the purple horizon, already regretting being so curt with her.

"I didn't mean-"

He waved away her explanations, reorganizing his expression into something a little more amicable as he turned to face her, "It's alright."

Kitty nodded, unconvinced, her cheeks hot.

"I want you."

She started at his admission, her whole body shifting away from him, spine kissing the wall at her back, "Pete-"

"But that doesn't mean I have any intention of forcing myself on you," he continued quietly. "You're mated, and I'm not fool enough to get between Creed and his-"

She held up a hand, "I know what you're going to say-"

 _Property_.

"Woman."

Kitty searched his face for a jab that wasn't there.

"Good night," he said, turning back towards the sky. She eased inside, letting the door click softly shut behind her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Present Day**

 ** _New York_**

Another four days passed, without incident, with no word on Shaw or Stryker. Kitty spent most of her days in the Danger Room with Emma, testing the limits of her new abilities. The first day was cut short when she was overcome by a migraine, her body crippling under the weight of her new powers. She slept restlessly, to find, the next morning, her skin had erupted over night, shredding her pajamas and sheets.

"It's going to take time," Emma said, when Kitty found her, coffee warming her palms, expression drawn.

"We don't have time," Kitty replied.

"That's not true," Emma shook her head. "We just don't know how much."

"Victor has been gone for almost two months," Kitty said. "We're running out of time, I can feel it."

"Then we should be practicing," Emma inclined her head towards the entrance to the Danger Room. Kitty relented, abandoning her coffee, and insecurities, and suiting up for another grueling seven hour practice session.

It was close to five when she and Emma finally emerged, Kitty stretched her joints, her powers hadn't drained her as they had the day before, but there was a heaviness in her limbs that she wasn't adjusted to. It surged back strong memories of her early phasing. Her body's confusion as she first tested and then empowered her abilities to serve a higher purpose than simply frightening her, and her parents, half to death.

She was running her fingers through her wet hair, knuckles catching in the knots, when Logan met her between the shower and the kitchen, "Xavier needs us."

"What's going on?" Kitty said, Logan's face was wrinkled in a scowl.

"Wisdom."

She groaned, following him down the hallway, "Now what."

"No idea," Logan grunted. "But I'd wager I'm not going to like it."

They entered Xavier's office to find Jean, Scott, Rogue and Emma already lined up on either side of Xavier's desk. Pete was standing front and center, button down pushed to either elbow, expression unreadable as he avoided Kitty's pointed gaze.

"I've been ordered to make the arrangements to transport Sinister to Crossmore."

Kitty's eyes widened, incredulous, "You said that wouldn't be a discussion until after we eliminated Stryker."

"I stalled for as long as I could," Pete replied. "Stuart isn't satisfied with being put off."

"Alistair Stuart has been the head of MI13 for as long as its been in existence," Xavier said. "I trust his judgement is sound, but under the circumstances-"

"Under the circumstances the safest place for Sinister is as far away from Shaw and Stryker as humanly possible," Pete interrupted, transforming from a wrinkled suit into the MI13 agent he was sent to be. "The sooner we move him the better."

"If we break him out, we're doing Shaw's job for him," Scott argued.

"And if he stays, Shaw will do the job himself," Pete retorted.

Kitty's expression hadn't softened, warring between fury and disappointment. Pete avoided her eyes, well adjusted to furious women, but unprepared to deal with the gut punch her disappointment provided.

"Who's to say Stryker won't come for Sinister once he's delivered to MI13."

"Moving him abroad means Stryker will be forced to tip his hand if he wants Sinister back," Pete replied, turning to Scott. "For one, Stryker doesn't have the man power or money that he has here in the states, abroad. We'd know he was mobilizing well before he stepped foot on English soil. And then there's the matter of jurisdiction. It's one thing for a U.S. citizen to break weapons of mass destruction out of prison on American soil, he'd be facing the firing squad if he tried that in England."

"How is Stuart suggesting we safely move Sinister overseas?" Xavier asked, brow wrinkled in concentration, searching for a compromise. He was, above all, an anchor to the range of tempers expressed within his team. Kitty could hear Logan grinding his teeth together, and the faces of her team members were no more understanding.

"There are more where I came from," Pete replied, tone bordering on patronizing. "He'd send in reinforcements."

"We're not talking security," Logan snapped.

"Logan-"

"I need to talk to you," Kitty said, snatching a corner of Pete's shirtsleeve. "Now."

Emma stepped up in their wake, drawing everyone's attention, "In the meantime, I'll give you an update on Shaw. I've had him tailed since he left the Club-"

Kitty phased them through Xavier's office door into the hallway outside, blue eyes flashing upwards, "What the fuck do you think you're doing."

"I told you-"

"We made a deal."

"Stuart doesn't care about my dealings with you."

"Then what was that big speech about teaming up," she demanded. "You said you'd have my back."

"I'd say I've more than had it," Pete hurled back, lifting his hands between them, baring the mostly healed scars her ruptured skin had left.

"That's low."

"No," he shook his head, lowering his hands so he could lean a fraction closer, expression fierce. "What's low is you expecting me to go against my own team, when you know you, if it came down to it, wouldn't do that for me-"

"Fuck you."

His jaw tightened, a muscle jumped to attention under the strain.

"I trusted you-"

Pete ground out, "I came to you, _all_ of you, with this-"

"Bullshit you came to me," Kitty interrupted.

"I answer to Xavier, not to you."

"Sounds to me like the only person you answer to is Alistair Stuart."

Pete let out a long suffering groan, "He's the head of MI13, Pryde. Of course I'm going to prioritize-"

"You came here to work with us," Kitty said. "To cooperate."

"What I'm asking," he growled, dangerously close to losing his temper. "Is for _you_ to cooperate."

Kitty was staring at him, eyes narrowed, hooked to his. Finally she replied, "Me, cooperate? When you can't even be honest about why you're here."

His brow wrinkled to frown, "What are you talking about-"

"You knew all along Stuart was going to push this thing through."

It was at that moment that Pete noted the intensity of her gaze, his brain registering the mental prod.

"Jesus," he jerked backwards, breaking eye contact with her, hands to his head. "Get out of my head-"

"You lied to me-"

"You're acting like I tried breaking Sinister out with my bare fucking hands!"

"You lied," she repeated, shoulders sinking. "About wanting to be partners, about wanting to take out Stryker first. You lied about everything."

His expression cooled, again, transforming him into someone Kitty was slow to recognize, "You're right. I didn't come here to make friends with all of you and cooperate. I came because MI13 wants Sinister transferred overseas before the inevitable happens and his location and power is out of our control."

She slapped both hands to his shirtfront, caught between a fresh wave of disappointment and utter fury, "I trusted you."

"Careful," he snarled, gut twisting at her defeated expression. "Keep this up, and people may actually start to think you like having me around-"

The fire in her eyes returned at his cruelty. She swung at him, he caught her wrist, barely deflecting the hit. She phased away, aiming a kick for his ribs.

"Pryde, don't-"

She ignored him, hellbent on landing a hit, releasing some of her frustration on him. She ducked low when he lunged for her, phasing past him and angling another punch. She clipped his jaw, breaking out stars across his vision.

"You're a liar, and a bastard."

He rubbed his jaw, dark eyes wearing the world weary expression of a man too accustomed to letting people down.

"I'm here to do a job," he replied quietly.

"Then do it," she said, turning away, stalking towards the back of the Institute. "But leave me out of any more of your lies."

He watched her go, cursing Stuart, and MI13. He ran a hand through his hair, opening the door to Xavier's office, greeted with a spectrum of hostility, and a singular smug smirk from Logan.

"You need ice for that, bub."

He ignored him, loosening his tie, all business, "Lets discuss transportation."


	17. Chapter 17

**Present Day**

 ** _New York_**

Kitty managed to avoid Pete for the next three days. Occupied with Emma and the Danger Room, as Pete connected Xavier and Stuart to continue debating arrangements regarding Sinister's removal from the Raft. Kitty hadn't experienced a migraine in over forty-eight hours, and Hank, after checking her vitals twice a day, was confident her body was over the hill of adapting, and preparing to embrace her new abilities.

She was crowded around the kitchen table beside Logan and Emma, a pot of coffee between them, when Emma announced, "I'm going away for a few days."

"What for?" Logan demanded.

Emma stiffened, shifting to pin Logan with a glare, unaccustomed to answering to anyone, particularly a man.

"Shaw?" Kitty said, redirecting Emma's cool stare away from Logan.

"No," she shook her head. "It's personal."

"What about the Club."

"What about it?" She replied. "There are two queens for a reason."

Kitty leaned back in her chair, "I've barely stepped foot inside it since I was nominated."

"You're still their queen," Emma replied. "You could stay away for a year and it wouldn't matter."

"When are you leaving?"

"Tonight," Emma replied. "I'll be back no later than Friday."

Kitty returned to her laptop, thankful for Emma's plans. It had been almost three full days of training in the Danger Room with Emma and her body was craving practice outside of the artificial illusion of the Danger Room, a release. A plan formed, in part from her desire to separate from Logan's prying stares, and Pete, to revisit Victor's cell along Lake Ontario. Kitty was confident that if she could withstand the memories it would dredge up, she'd made progress in the last weeks with her ever shifting mutation. The only hiccup, would be leaving the Institute unattended for a few hours.

She saw Emma safely to the airport that night. Asking, when it was just the two of them, where she was going.

"Family reunion," Emma replied, pulling a small carry on from the depths of Kitty's trunk. She took her time arranging her bags in the crook of her elbow.

"Your sisters?"

"Yes."

Kitty had debated a final question. Her parents- Winston and Hazel.

"They're dead."

Kitty shot her a glare, accusing.

"I didn't have to probe to know that's what you would ask," Emma replied with a wry smile.

"Safe travels," Kitty said.

"It's not the traveling I'm worried about," Emma replied. Kitty watched as she disappeared through the sliding doors, into the airport.

Back in the car, the glow of the airport lighting up her rearview mirror, she thought of her own family. She hadn't seen her parents since she'd come to the Institute. Her powers, out of control, had frightened them into never returning. She envied Emma, with her three siblings, though Kitty had heard enough to understand Emma's family life was nothing to covet. Her sisters were spiteful and dangerous, one had ruled as White Queen before Emma. Her parents aloof and disengaged from their children's centrifuge.

Back at the Institute, she weighed her options, quickly deciding Friday would be a better day to travel. She woke up Friday well before dawn, anxious to beat Logan out of bed, and avoid any unwanted questions. She pulled on comfortable leggings and a heavy coat in the darkness of her room, phasing through the walls of the Institute to reach her car.

As the sun rose, Kitty began to recognize the sway of the trees, the cut of the lake. She was almost to her destination. The building was stuck out along the otherwise empty coast of the lake, studded with cracks, and bracketed by fly away tree branches, it was a place Kitty promised herself never having to see again. As she climbed the stairs to Victor's cell she felt her body begin to hum with anticipation. She ran her fingers along the wall, testing her strength. She conjured and extended the silvery arm of her probe in her conscious mind, watching it slip past her, into unconscious places well out of her reach without Emma's gifts. The stairwell was suddenly filled with gruff voices, the smell of gunpowder, men. Stryker's hired muscle. As she neared the cell, a waft of Victor's familiar scent hit her.

Something quivered inside her, threatening to break as the memories she'd lifted from Shaw intensified.

Kitty took a steadying breath, focusing all of her power on her probe, tamping down her conscious emotions. Victor's voice. His shouts. Stryker's unforgiving replies. When she opened her eyes she was standing just outside his cell, the bars glowing black in the dimly lit room. She reached for them, they were cool to the touch, icing the insides of her palm.

"Victor."

Her eyes squeezed shut, tears threatening. She phased her hand through, jerking backwards at the feel of her probe, intact, continuing to access old fragmented memories. She phased again, testing the power against a fluke. Intangible, she was able to maintain her probe. She concentrated, her skin glittering diamond, as she tried to phase again. She disintegrated one of the bars with a mighty kick, maintaining her intangability along the rest of the body. She continued testing the duality well into the afternoon, until her body begged reprieve. Each attempt, reminding her of her fight with Sinister, the feel of her phased hand locking the inhibitor around his beating heart.

She stayed for hours, walking the perimeter, every inch of the building, searching for some clue she'd left unturned in their last visit. Disappointed to find, her initial probe of her stolen memories from Shaw's had been thorough, as had her investigation of it. She was disappointed, hoping her newfound control would lend itself to further clues. But, she reasoned, if the information wasn't available to her in the first place, she couldn't access it now. Not without getting close to Shaw again.

It was nearly four when she returned to her car, slipping behind the wheel she took one last look at the building, stark against the pale blue skies and ferocity of the black lake. Vowing to never return, she pulled away, heading for home.

Emma surprised her in the driveway, halfway out of her own car.

Kitty's pulse spiked at the sight of her, home early from her trip, "What's going on."

"I've been trying to reach you," Emma said, somewhere between relief and fury.

"What's wrong?"

"Where have you been all day?" She demanded. "What happened this morning?"

"How did you know-"

"I felt your panic," Emma interrupted, searching her expression, fighting the urge to probe for the information that she wanted. "You called for me."

Kitty frowned, shaking her head, "I didn't-"

"You did," Emma replied angrily. "I heard you."

Kitty hesitated, finally, "I was upstate."

The severity of Emma's expression instantly lessened after a moment, "Victor's cell."

"I wanted to see if I could handle it."

Images of her ruined uniform, Pete's bloodied hands, surged between them.

"And?" Emma prodded.

Kitty spread her arms, indicating her intact clothing with a wry smile, "I survived."

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing new," Kitty shook her head. "But I was able to better access the memories that overwhelmed me last time."

"You don't remember calling for me?"

"I didn't think I was actually," Kitty gestured between them, at a loss for words. "You know-"

"Reaching me?"

She nodded, "Yes."

"I heard you as clearly as if you'd been standing beside me."

"I'm sorry."

Emma looked her over, she was intact, but drained, "You had a strong reaction to seeing that cell again."

"It reminded me of how long Victor's been gone," Kitty said quietly, removing her gloves, hair tossing one way and then the other in the cool wind.

"How good it will be to have him back?" Emma hedged.

Pete Wisdom rose up, subtle as quicksand between them. Wordlessly, Kitty gestured to the house, indicating they should go inside. The Institute was particularly quiet for the mid-afternoon.

"That's strange," Kitty said, dropping her coat across a couch cushion as she moved towards the back of the house. Kitty caught sight of a few new recruits in the backyard, stumbling through one of Logan's obstacle courses.

"Where is everyone?"

One boy lifted his head, frowning at the sight of Kitty, "They left to find you."

Before she could reply Emma called her name from the porch. Kitty turned, jogging back the way she'd come. Emma was waiting, hand extended, between her fingers a heavy piece of parchment

"This was inside."

Kitty's eyes surveyed the text. It was written in what appeared to be Emma's drawling script, calling for a meeting of the inner council earlier that morning. Even she couldn't separate the forged signature from Emma's authentic. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, it would take a skilled hand, and someone with inside knowledge of the Club to pull off such a trick. Kitty's gaze lifted, dreading the reality of the note in her hands.

"Shaw," Kitty said quietly, releasing a heavy breath.

"It was addressed to Agent Wisdom."

Kitty flipped the parchment over, Pete's name was black as death across the front.

"He's smart enough to recognize a trap when he sees one," Emma said quietly, reassuring but leaving words unspoken.

"They didn't know where I was," Kitty said, expression anxious. "They must have gone to the Club anyway-"

"We need to go," Emma said. "Now."

"They won't be able to find it without you," Kitty said, following Emma through the house.

"That may have saved their lives."

"What if Shaw was waiting for them outside," Kitty demanded, pace quickening at the thought of Rogue, Logan, all of them, walking into his carefully laid trap.

"We won't know until we get there," Emma replied quietly, expression unreadable. Kitty worked to squelch her rising panic, following Emma's composed example.

"I know," she interrupted, cutting her off, eyes squeezing shut for a moment. "I know."

"How will Logan and the others know how to get inside?" Kitty demanded, starting her car as Emma slid shot gun.

"I'll make the entrance visible once we arrive," Emma replied. "I don't want to chance unveiling it before we know it's necessary."

Kitty got them to the doorstep of the Club in record time. Both women were reaching for their adjacent door handles before Kitty had the car fully in park. The Club was silent, the winding, heavily carpeted hallways, for the first time in Kitty's memory, echoing their dueling footsteps. They rounded the first corner.

"Shit-"

Kitty recoiled, hand to her mouth at the sight. Their rook and two horseman, gutted, left to bleed out. They moved past the three men, coming up on the spacious hall, home to the inner circle's table, where Kitty had been named Black Queen. The entrance to the core of the Club was strewn with further carnage, it became obvious the fight had started within the meeting room and quickly escaladed throughout the building.

"Emma-"

She lifted a hand, concentrating, knowing exactly what Kitty was about to request.

"They should be able to find their way in," Emma said. "If they're here."

Kitty nodded, moving along the hallway.

"We should start with the inner chamber," Emma said, lifting her chin to indicate the main room, the door garishly propped open with the body of a man Kitty didn't care to look at long enough to recognize.

"I'll be right behind you," Kitty said, phasing through the nearest wall to complete a quick sweep of the rooms and hallways around them.

Reminded of Emma, walking among the bodies of her fallen teammates, Kitty made quick work of her perimeter check, phasing her way through the building back to the chamber. She phased through the final wall, crossing the floor to Emma, the bottoms of her boots slick with blood. Her stomach pressed tight to her ribcage, she ignored the urge to vomit. Emma was at standing at the head of the table, the gavel had been tossed to the floor in the commotion, leaving the long mahogany wood bare.

There was a slash of blood down her front. Kitty pressed the image of Emma clutching one of the bodies strewn around them to her chest. Disquieted at the ice queen's display of humanity.

Kitty reached her side, finger tips brushing her elbow, "Emma."

"He killed all of them."

She lifted her hand, between her fingers was a piece of parchment. It was the same message they'd found at the Institute, abandoned on Xavier's table. Kitty removed the paper from her hands, taking off her right glove she pressed her bare fingers to the paper, probing as Emma had taught her.

Kitty confirmed, "Shaw."

Emma's shoulders began to shimmer. Kitty watched her fury seep between her cells, an outpouring of diamond white light.

Noise from the south end of the building echoed to life. Kitty tensed, before recognizing Logan's gruff shout. She called back, inciting his footsteps to a run.

He appeared in the far doorway, "Half-pint."

Kitty met his gaze, silent, facing his battle gear without her own was disembodying. She felt, instantly, strangely fragile. Logan looked away, relief overpowered for a moment, features hardening at the scene laid out before him.

Behind him, Rogue appeared, out of breath, frantic, "Is she here, did you find-"

He quieted her, nodding. When Rogue made to step around him, he stopped her process, barring her from entering the room, "Nothing you want to see, darlin'."

"When Pete received that note we assumed the worst," Rogue said, stepping around Logan's arm, eyes on Kitty. "We thought you were here-"

"I was upstate," Kitty explained lamely, cheeks growing hot at her own irresponsibility.

"Without saying anything?" Logan demanded.

"I wasn't thinking," she said, looking between her two teammates. "I'm sorry-"

"You're safe," Rogue said, her gloved hand finding hers. "Nothing else matters."

"No sign of Shaw?" Kitty asked.

Logan shook his head, "We checked everywhere while we were waiting to be let in."

"How did you know it was a trap?" Kitty asked.

"Shaw's scent was all over it," Logan replied gruffly.

"Why would he do this?" Rogue said, eyes on the brutalized bodies surrounding them.

"Revenge," Logan replied.

"Bastard," Emma muttered, her skin starting to return to its normal hue, the diamond flush splintering away into nothingness.

A door banged open, somewhere over Logan's shoulder. He let out a growl, claws cutting through his skin at the sudden noise.

"Wisdom-"

Pete's expression was terrorized when he appeared in the doorway at Logan's side.

"Where is she?"

"Who are you looking for, bub."

His gaze found Kitty. She felt her cheeks heat under his stare.

"I'm fine."

"I thought-"

The sentence died on his lips.

"We arrived minutes before you did," Emma replied, her cool tone cutting through the tension Pete's presence ratched skyhigh.

"There's too much to do for all of us to be standing around," Emma announced, leaving Kitty's side to move towards the nearest exit.

"She's right," Logan said, motioning for Rogue.

"Pryde."

She turned at the sound of her name, Pete's expression said what he couldn't.

 _Thank god you're alive._


	18. Chapter 18

**Present Day**

 **New York/England**

Kitty and Emma spent the next hour in holed up in Emma's office, Kitty hard at work on the security tapes, Emma trying to contact any surviving members of the inner circle.

"Anyone?"

"Not yet," Emma replied tightly, fingers punching more buttons on her phone.

"Kitty."

She looked up at the sound of Logan's voice.

"We found one of Stryker's men," he said, splitting his attention between the two women. "Alive."

Kitty stood up, Emma swung around, their luck shifting for one bright moment. Logan led them down the hall to a far corner of the building.

"He was trying to crawl out of here."

Emma kicked him onto his back, exposing a gash across his thigh and a broken arm. His face was pale, eyes rolled back in his head, he was nearly unconscious by the look of him.

"Bring him to the main room," Emma instructed. "Make sure you keep him alive."

"Wait," Kitty said, pressing Emma backwards with a steady hand. "We at least need a location in case he bleeds out."

She knelt, fingers finding the man's forehead. When his unbroken arm lifted to strike Kitty phased, continuing her probe.

"Kitty," Emma's eyes widened. "Your powers-"

"I can use them in tandem," she said, without looking up, her eyes focused on the man. The smell of cigarette smoke somewhere behind her threatened to snap her probe, but she pushed it, and Pete, out of her mind.

"Your day at the lake," Emma hedged.

"Yes," Kitty replied.

"Let her concentrate," Pete snapped. Emma fell silent as Kitty probed. It took under ten minutes for Kitty to determine Stryker's location, and the fact that Shaw had moved himself and Victor under the same roof.

"Canada."

"You'll have to be more specific," Pete said, smirking.

She shot him a withering look over her shoulder, "Grimsby, Canada."

"That's not too far north," Logan said, scratching the rough of his beard. "My guess, is they're staying as close as possible to the Raft."

Rogue's brow knit, "If they're both there-"

She broke off.

"They're planning something," Logan finished. "Something big."

Emma let out a humorless laugh, "They already did."

Kitty turned, catching Emma's eye, "You should stay behind."

"No," she shook her head. "I'll give Ned temporary control."

"You trust him to give it back to you?" Rogue hedged.

"He has no love for Shaw," Emma replied. "And when he finds out about this," she gestured to the scene around them, shaking her head.

"Now what?" Rogue said, looking between Emma and Kitty.

"We need to get back to the Institute," Kitty said.

"I want to spend some time in his mind," Emma indicated the man Logan was hefting away from them.

"We should move no later than tomorrow."

"We'll need more than tonight to prepare," Rogue said.

Pete nodded his agreement, "Three days should be enough."

Kitty bit back her impatience, instead replying, "We'll regroup tomorrow, and be ready to move no later than Sunday."

The following day, Logan briefed the rest of the team on the previous days events, while Kitty and Rogue completed research on Grimsby.

Post-meeting, Logan found the two of them, paperwork spread across the length of the conference room table.

"Anything from Emma?"

Kitty shook her head at Logan's question, "Nothing."

Logan sat down beside Rogue, scratching his lengthening beard, releasing a sigh, "If Shaw's moving north, maybe we should too."

"And take a chance leaving the Institute unprotected?" Rogue shook her head.

"We're wasting time-"

"We have a bigger problem."

Kitty turned, Pete was framed in the doorway, cellphone in hand. Her whole body stiffened at the sight of him, her earlier fury returning as she met his gaze.

Logan's eyes narrowed, unaccustomed to being interrupted, he growled, "Jesus, now what?"

"Just got a call from across the pond," he said, lifting his cellphone. "It seems as though we've been hacked."

Rogue frowned, "What does that mean."

"Someone has accessed MI13's records."

Kitty straightened, turning to give him her full attention, "The mutant records."

Pete nodded, "Bingo, professor."

"What exactly do those records contain?" Logan demanded.

"Everything from a mutant's home address to their blood type," Pete said, dragging a hand through his mussed hair.

"Shit," Logan hissed.

"There's more."

"More," Kitty repeated, bracing for the worst.

"They wiped us clean."

Her brow knit.

"They said it's as if our whole hard drive was erased."

"Stolen," Kitty murmured, shaking her head.

Logan ground out a string of curses.

"We need to find out who accessed the records-"

"Who do you think-"

"I have a pretty good guess," Pete replied.

"I know it's Stryker," Kitty snapped. "I mean what device. It's the only way to make sure Stryker hasn't stored it in multiple locations."

"How are you going to find all this out from your computer?" Pete demanded.

"I'm not," Kitty said, lifting her eyes to his.

"Then what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm looking up flights," she replied. "We're going to England."

Pete opened his mouth to reply, argue or otherwise.

"We don't have a choice," Kitty said, interrupting anything he wanted to say.

"I'll call Emma," Rogue said, lifting out of her chair. Within the hour Kitty had secured two seats on a red eye flight to London. She left Rogue and Logan, having finished their call to Emma, to the conference room to pack for her trip. Pete appeared in her doorway shortly after she retrieved her duffel from beneath her bed.

"Shouldn't you be packing?" She asked without looking up.

Pete leaned his shoulder to the doorframe, watching her organize clothes, gadgets and shoes.

"As much as I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with you-"

Kitty shifted, pinning him with a glare.

"We're wasting time with an airline," Pete finished.

"We can't take the jet," Kitty replied, turning away, continuing to fold and deposit clothes into the duffel across her bed.

"Why not," Pete demanded.

"They may need it more than us."

"For Creed."

"For a lot of things," Kitty correctly cooly.

"Pryde-"

She zipped the duffel closed, Pete rubbed a hand over his face, shoulder to the doorframe, "Are you going to shut me out for the duration of this trip, because we might as well skip it if-"

"You lied to me," she interrupted, lifting her chin to meet his gaze.

He released a sigh, "I'm sorry I lied, but I told you, the job comes first."

"I understand," she said, with a single shake of her head. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to forget."

"You can trust me, Pryde."

"We'll see," she replied quietly, coiling wires around her hand as she spoke, taking a mental inventory of what she'd need to investigate the MI-13 hack. "We need to leave by nine."

"I'm ready when you are, professor."

She shot a withering look at his receding figure as he returned to his borrowed room.


	19. Chapter 19

**Present Day**

 ** _England_**

The twilight was ribbed orange and red through the slitted windows of the plane. The flight had taken a little under eight hours, leaving Kitty and Pete thoroughly sleep deprived and rumpled. Kitty's hair was a study in bed head, and Pete had shredded his cuticles hankering for a cigarette. They arrived at the tarmac, the engine had rumbled to quiet, leaving them with nothing to do but wait.

After a half hour of sitting Kitty was in constant motion, fidgeting her way closer and closer to the edge of the seat, bag in her lap, eyes glued to the front of the aircraft.

"Relax."

She shot Pete a glare, "I'm fine."

"You haven't stopped moving since we landed."

She shot him an arch look, eyes cutting between his dark gaze and the blood around his finger nails, "Says you."

He ignored the barb.

Kitty lifted her wrist, eyeing her watch, "We've been sitting for almost an hour."

Pete wagged his eyebrows at her, "I could always open the emergency exits."

Before she could reply the flight attendant arrived at the front of the plane, motioning for passengers to leave their seats. Kitty surged up and out of her seat, urging Pete to do the same. He grumbled something about pushy women, as he led the way down the aisle, Kitty's duffel bumping his spine as the toes of her sneaks clipped his heels.

They ate fish and chips out of cardboard containers, before finding a cheap hotel attached to a liquor store dilapidated laundry mat. Pete paid for their two rooms with a silvery credit card, courtesy of MI13. They said goodnight, and retired to their respective rooms. After a long, scalding shower, Pete flicked through tv channels, distracted, thinking of Kitty a wall away.

The sound of Kitty's phone ringing, distinct through the paper thin walls, piqued his attention. Her voice, even muffled, sounded hollow. Within seconds of ending the call he heard her door open and slam shut, her sneakers padding along the cement outside. It was a little after eleven when he noticed a slim shadow moving across the balcony outside his window. His curiosity got the best of him.

She was posted up, just outside their rooms, wearing dark leggings and an oversized t-shirt he'd bet belonged to Victor.

"Pryde."

She barely turned, elbows propped to the railing bracketing the motel's excuse for a balcony.

"You should be asleep," he said, lighter hissing the flame. A slash of moonlight caught the bottle by her hip. He reached for it, hefting the cool glass with his free hand, brow lifting at its emptiness.

"Not a word," Kitty snapped, blue eyes that should have been bleary staring up at him like twin jewels. She snatched the bottle back, plunking it down on the railing in front of her, eyes trained on the indigo horizon. The amber liquid sloshed and finally settled.

"Who called."

"Emma."

He smoked his cigarette down to nothing before demanding quietly, "What did she have to say."

"Nothing."

"Nothing," Pete repeated, turning to face her, hip balanced on the lip of the railing. She was silent, refusing to face him. "Talk to me."

"Leave me alone."

"In your time of need?" He smirked.

She ignored him, taking another long drink from the bottle.

"Keep that up and I'll be carrying you to bed within the hour," he warned.

His words brought heat, unbidden to her cheeks.

"Just leave me alone."

"I already told you-"

Kitty planted both hands to his chest, shoving him backwards, towards the door, "Just go-"

He caught her wrists in either hand, holding her steadily in front of him so he could meet her gaze.

"Tell me what's the matter."

She phased away, running a hand through her unruly hair.

"She lost track of Shaw."

"Her tail?"

Kitty nodded, "She can't get in touch with him since the massacre."

Pete rubbed the rough stubble along his cheek, "He's probably dead."

Kitty's head jerked up at his words, expression terrorized.

"The tail," Pete amended, taking a step closer. "Emma's spy, not-"

She shook her head, chin dipping to her chest, "He's been gone for weeks."

"If Shaw killed him, we'd know."

Kitty was motionless, her shoulders cutting a defeated line against the horizon at her back.

"Pryde."

She remained exactly where she was.

"Kitty."

At the sound of her name she lifted her head a fraction, blue eyes finding his. The whiskey had infused color in the apples of her cheeks, making the opal of her skin stark and startling fringed with her chestnut hair.

"It's my fault, I never should have left him with Shaw for so long."

When her eyes overflowed with tears he drew her to his shirtfront with a single hand to the back of her head. He smelled like cigarettes and musky aftershave up close.

"It's alright," he said quietly, his heartbeat steady and strong against her cheek. When her tears finally subsided, she stepped back, putting half a foot worth of space between them.

Pete stared down at her, quiet, for the first time she could remember. His hand lifting to her cheek was smoother, leaner, than Victor's blunt, calloused touch. She felt more than saw his gaze dip to her mouth. He inclined his head a fraction, "Kitty-"

She jerked backwards, the spell broken at the sound of his voice, chest rising and falling heavily. His expression instantly soured, his customary scowl in place.

"I didn't mean to-"

Pete gave her a look of utter disgust, "You didn't do a damn thing."

"We-"

"Don't fucking patronize me," he snapped.

"I'm not."

At her third denial he rolled his eyes skyward, "What the fuck _are_ you doing?"

He was already halfway to sticking a cigarette in his mouth before she could open her mouth to reply. It was Kitty's turn to roll her eyes.

He jabbed a finger in her direction, "Not one word."

Kitty turned away, burying her fingers in her hair, finally acknowledging how close she'd come to betraying Victor.

"Relax," Pete said, around the flick and hiss of his lighter. "Your secret is safe with me."

"Nothing happened."

She made the mistake of meeting his dark gaze. His desire shot through her like a white hot bolt of lightning.

"Pete-"

"What are you so afraid of?" He demanded quietly, advancing on her. Kitty matched his movement with three steps back, her shoulder blades hitting the rough of the wall, bringing her up short. "What Creed will do if he finds out, or how much you want me-"

Her palm connected with the side of his face with a crack, his cigarette a casualty at their feet, smoking gently on the cement floor.

"Jesus, woman."

Pete rubbed his cheek, stooping to collect his cigarette.

"If you ever bring this up-"

He held up both hands, surrender, disappointment, fury.

"It'll be like it never happened."

"Nothing happened," Kitty corrected cooly.

Pete backed up, giving her enough room to slip by him with no fear of making contact. His jaw was clenched tight enough to splinter watching her disappear through the door and into her darkened room, leaving him along with his cigarette and her half done bottle of whiskey. He forced himself to turn away, eyeing the half down cigarette between his fingers. Without another thought he crunched the orange tip into his forearm, gritting his teeth against the pain, the sizzle of his own skin ringing in his ears.


	20. Chapter 20

**Present Day**

 _ **England**_

When Pete awoke the next morning there was a note taped to the empty bottle of whiskey beside his bed, indicating Kitty had left for MI13 early, and he should procure coffee on his way in. He grumbled, yanking the note free of the bottle to crush it in his fist. Katherine Pryde was, without a shadow of a doubt, going to be the death of him.

He called twice on his way to grab coffee, and another time as he neared the entrance of MI13. She denied his call all three times, spiking his blood pressure sky high. He finished a pack and a half of cigarettes before stepping foot in MI13.

"You haven't been answering your phone," Pete said, entering the office, tie loosened to hang nearly halfway down his chest, depositing her coffee on the table.

"I've been busy," Kitty said absently, eyes on the computer, fingers groping towards her cup.

Pete sipped his coffee, nearly half done, "Find anything?"

"I've determined the information was downloaded to a single source, which means Stryker probably isn't stashing it in multiple places," Kitty said, as she continued to explore their expansive, freshly emptied, database.

"So, what?" Pete said, leaning over her shoulder. "This was a waste of time?"

"Not necessarily," Kitty replied, looking up from the computer at him.

"Should I cancel our 3 p.m. outbound flight?" He smirked.

"I'm not going anywhere until we've taken a lot at the security footage," she replied. "Make yourself comfortable, agent Wisdom."

He left to smoke, returning to find her buried beneath the computer itself, untangling wires and tracing blinking lights within the computer's hardware.

"Call if you need me," he said, watching the perfect curve of her ass, appearing and disappearing from beneath the table as she rummaged around on her hands and knees. "I'm going to take a look at the security tapes from the last week."

"Let me know when you find something."

Pete was back within the hour, expression drawn.

"Pryde."

"What is it?" She asked. "What did you find?"

"Nothing good," Pete said.

She looked up at him, expectant.

"It was Victor."

Her expression was utterly blank, "What are you talking about."

"Victor broke in and stole the files."

"Victor is-"

"He was here," Pete interrupted, shaking his head at her denial. "I can show you the tapes."

Kitty stood, agreeing that she should see them, and following Pete to MI13's security office. On the wide tv screen she watched Victor enter the facility, navigate the halls to the main computer system and empty of the database onto a hard drive. She was silent, hand to her mouth, eyes wide.

Pete switched off the tape, releasing a heavy breath.

"He's alive-"

"Jesus," he growled. "That's all you have to say?"

"He didn't do this," she said quietly. "He wouldn't do this-"

"Obviously he did."

At his tone Kitty's head snapped up, expression furious.

"He may have been brainwashed."

Pete turned away, disgusted with her excuses.

"Stryker has done it before," Kitty pressed on. "Victor is feral, they may have-"

"Enough," Pete slammed a hand onto the desk, the keyboard and their dual coffee cups shaking with the force of it.

"Say it," Kitty said, quiet, blue eyes burning.

"Say what," he demanded.

"You told me so."

Pete stared at her, angry, biting back the words.

She looked away, shoulders sagging, "I need to call Emma."

He left her, standing in front of the monitor, to make the call.

When she finally shifted out from under the glow of the screen it was to close the door and punch in Emma's familiar number. She received the call on the first ring.

Kitty blurted her name, "Emma."

"I've been expecting your call."

Kitty was suddenly reminded of Stryker's agent, under Emma's care, "How long have you known?"

"Less than an hour," she replied. "It took a while, but I got it out of him."

"What did you find out?"

Emma hesitated.

"He's not, is he?"

"Victor's been released," Emma replied carefully. "And yes, he's working for Stryker."

Kitty's chin dipped towards her chest, disappointment washing over her.

"I'm sorry, Kitty."

Kitty squeezed her eyes shut, trying to compartmentalize her feelings and the tasks at hand.

"Is he with them in Grimsby?"

"It seems that way."

"Is that where he's taken the files?"

"Yes," Emma said. "Logan was right, they're staying close to the Raft. It looks like they're preparing to move on the facility to release Sinister soon."

"Shit."

"We won't move on Grimsby without you," Emma said.

"Thank you."

"That being said," Emma continued. "When are you coming home?"

"Within the next twenty-four hours, now that this is wrapped up," Kitty replied.

"We need to retrieve those files before Stryker has too much time with them."

"I know," Kitty replied, tired, aching for a reprieve from this nightmare.

"Safe travels."

Kitty disconnected and, releasing a heavy breath, headed for Pete's office.


	21. Chapter 21

**Present Day**

 _ **England**_

He was behind his desk when she entered, wearing a grimace, smoking.

"You can't smoke in here."

He made no move to stamp out the burning cigarette.

"It's a fire hazard," Kitty said. "And you know I can't stand the smell-"

"You're stalling."

She opened her mouth to argue but he interrupted, "What did Frost say."

Kitty eased the door shut behind her, Pete's gaze followed the motion, lips tipping to smirk, "That bad?"

"Victor's been released."

"No shit."

Pete waited, smoke drifting over his shoulder, as emotions blipped across Kitty's face. The spectrum of confusion to disappointment.

"He's working for Stryker."

He stared at her, finally relinquishing his cigarette, shoving the tip into a fat stack of papers near his elbow. It hissed as the paper absorbed the flame, extinguishing them neatly.

"Victor wouldn't do this."

"This again," Pete grumbled.

"He wouldn't!"

"He already did," he snapped.

"I think I would know," Kitty replied, hands shifting to her hips.

"I've told you before, but I'll tell you again," he said. "You could drive a man to drink."

Kitty couldn't stifle her retort, "Lucky for you, you already do."

He shot a glare in her direction, demanding, "You expect me to believe Creed has been brainwashed into helping a man he's worked for in the past five years?"

Kitty took a step back, affronted, "He gave up that life."

He stared at her, dark eyes slitted, trying to gauge her honesty.

"Why would I lie," she demanded.

"I can think of a hundred reasons."

"I'm telling the truth," she replied, shoulders squaring.

He shoved both hands through his hair, "If this is some kind of sick revenge for springing the transfer to Crossmore on you-"

"This isn't about you, or me," Kitty snapped.

"Bullshit."

Kitty stilled, brow lifting, a storm gathering in her eyes, "Excuse me?"

"Bullshit," Pete repeated, enunciating each letter with vehemence.

"There is no _us_ , Agent Wisdom" Kitty replied cooly.

He stood up, his chair a casualty on its side behind him, "I bet I can prove you wrong."

"You're delusional."

"And you're still pissed I didn't bare my fucking soul to you about Stuart's plans for Sinister."

Kitty was quiet, expression unreadable.

"Tell me I'm wrong."

"You're wrong-"

"Tell me I'm wrong," Pete repeated, "And mean it."

Chin lifting, the familiar hurt his _I'm here to do a job_ speech had incited leaving her chest tight, she replied simply, "This is about work."

Some of the fire lessened in his dark eyes, his shoulders slipped a fraction, "Pryde, I-"

"Isn't that what you told me?" She demanded. "You're here to do a job?"

He was silent, the desk between them widening to a chasm before his very eyes.

"The best thing that we can do is get back to the states-"

"Like hell," Pete cut her off, some of his earlier fury returning at her suggestion. "We can't leave."

"MI13 isn't a target," Kitty shook her head. "The Institute, the X-men-"

"Isn't a target?" Pete demanded.

"Stryker has his sights set on one thing, and one thing only."

"And what about the rest of the world?"

Kitty's expression cooled, "I'm not worried about anything but Stryker, and Sinister."

When she turned to go, Pete snagged her wrist, forcing her attention upward, "I'm not leaving until we know how much damage Creed's caused."

Kitty lifted her chin, "Fine, stay. I'm going home."

"We're in this together," Pete argued.

"No, we're not," Kitty snapped. "Not if you don't see how important it is to get back to the Institute."

"If this is about rushing back for Victor-"

She jerked backwards, caught between her desire to prove Victor's innocence and her duty to protect mutants and humans alike from Sinister. If Pete, and Emma, were right, and Victor had truly turned, her decision not to prioritize his rescue would become a devastating error on her part. She swallowed, forcing the emotion rising in her throat down.

He was quiet a moment, watching her internal struggle play out in her wide eyes, before replying, "That's the difference between you two."

"Who?"

"You and Frost," Pete was staring down at her, shaking his head. "At the end of the day she'll do what needs to be done."

Kitty phased out of his grip, his hand dropping back down to his side.

"And what about you?"

"What about me," Kitty demanded.

"What are you willing to do to keep Sinister behind bars."

Kitty's expression shifted, distrust coloring her tone, "What are you asking."

"You know what I'm asking."

She stepped backwards, but Pete matched her step, keeping them within an inch of each other. She could feel his body heat along her front, feel his smoky breath on her face.

"You'll forfeit Creed to save the world, Pryde?"

She was silent.

"I didn't think so."

"I'm allowed to protect what's mine," she rallied, angry with him for calling her weak willed.

"How's he protecting you?" Pete demanded. "Aligning with Stryker, stealing from MI13-"

"I can fight for what I want without losing sight of what needs to be done," Kitty interrupted, vehement.

"We'll see."

"Fuck you."

He reached up, brushing a stray curl back behind her ear, "You could."

The breath caught in her throat, his knuckle tracked a slow line down her jaw.

"Christ knows I want you."

She was frozen, feet rooted to the floor, a nuclear detonation couldn't have motivated her into motion.

"Would he forgive you."

She looked up, brow knit, honesty hanging on every syllable, "I don't know."

"Are you willing to chance it."

"I don't know."

"I am."

His opposite hand lifted so he was cupping her face, drawing her into his kiss. Her body stiffened, and then melted to his, fingers pressing up his shirtfront and shoulders to tangle in his too long dark hair. He guided her backwards, wedging her hips between the wall and his body, his tongue making an exploratory pass between her lips.

"Tell me no," he commanded quietly, lifting his head, lips hovering just above hers.

Her eyes were squeezed shut, head tipped back to rest against the wall of his cramped office, "Pete."

His hand found the front of her pants, fingers stroking through the thin cotton of her leggings, "Say it."

Her eyes flashed open, fingers hooking his wrist, "I can't."

"Jesus," he slumped, forearm to the wall behind her, head bowed. She stayed perfectly still, pinned by his lower half, her pulse ticking in her ears, caught somewhere between agony and relief. She studied him, this close she could see the fine line bracketing his mouth, deepened, she was sure, not from smiling but smirking. His beard had begun to grow in along his jawline, black and night to match his hair. He was raggedly handsome, her body responded to his closeness, the smell of smoke clinging to his clothes. She hated herself, weighing, in some quiet corner of her mind, if she hated Victor's betrayal more.

"You're killing me," he finally grumbled, a muscle jumping in his jaw as he tried to get his emotions under control.

"I can't stay here."

His eyes flickered open, looking down at their joined lowers halves, smirking, deepening the lines on either side of his mouth, "That's a matter of opinion."

"In London," she corrected, pulling her gaze from his lips. "I need to get back to the Institute."

" _We_."

"I don't know if that's a good idea-"

His held her gaze, replying, "You said it yourself, we're all allowed to fight for what we want."

"I meant-"

He straightened, gaze no less severe, "You weren't talking about work then, and I'm not talking about it now. Pack up, we're leaving tonight."

She turned away, frustrated with him, and herself.

They were on the first flight out of Heathrow, sitting in uncomfortable silence for the duration of their flight home. His promise burned in her brain, adjacent, splicing, confusing, her promises to Victor. She spent the full seven and a half hour flight turning over Victor's infiltration of MI13 again and again, trying to see a way out of it. Coming up empty, and frustrated.

The Institute was dark when they made it to the doorstep, sporting dark circles and short tempers.

When Kitty lifted her key to the front door Pete caught her wrist, "Before we go in."

She phased away, willing her cheeks from pink to pale.

"What now."

"What happened in London-"

She shook her head, "It's forgotten."

"No," he said firmly. "That's exactly what I wanted to say."

Kitty raised her eyes to his, waiting.

"It's not forgotten," Pete said, dragging a hand through his hair. "Not by a long shot, not for me anyways."

"Pete, I-"

"And I meant what I said."

She released a heavy breath, "We need to focus everything we've got on Stryker and Shaw."

He nodded in agreement, "And the only way we're going to be able to do that is if you trust me."

"This again."

"Yes," he said. "This again."

"I trust you, Pete."

"I came here as an agent of MI13," Pete said quietly. "And I knew what my objective was."

Kitty crossed both arms to her chest, "Was?"

"I spoke to Stuart while you were packing up."

"And?"

"He's agreed to hold any talk of Sinister's transport until after we've eliminated Stryker and Shaw."

"Because of Victor?"

"Because I asked him to," Pete replied, jaw tightening at the sound of Victor's name.

"Thank you."

"Now that we've established a mutual goal," Pete stuck out his hand. "Partners?"

She hesitated, their kiss hanging between them.

"Partners," she finally repeated, fingers slipping into his. He squeezed her hand once and then dropped it, expression relaxing at the sound of her agreement.

"I'm going to want a hell of a lot more of you than that," Pete said quietly, dark eyes burning into hers. "If Creed is truly out of the picture."

She swallowed hard, turning away to fit her key into the lock, easing the door open, revealing Logan, patiently waiting up for them.

"Logan."

"Glad you're home safe," he said gruffly, accepting Kitty's hug, giving Pete a thorough inspection over her head.

"I'll be right down," Pete said, shifting past them on his way to his borrowed room, giving them the space Logan was looking for. Kitty released Logan, collecting her suitcase from the ground around a thick yawn.

"Where is everyone?" She asked, foot to the first step. "Downstairs, or in Professor's-"

"You smell like him."

She froze, pulse ticking in her ears, at Logan's snarled accusation.

"You heard me," Logan advanced when she didn't reply, stopping just over her left shoulder, glaring down at her. "You're covered in his scent."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kitty replied quietly, expression crystallizing into something less civil. Logan's brow lifted at her quiet retort, color singed her cheeks.

He waited, watching emotions blip across her face.

"I'm not surprised," she replied, finally meeting his gaze, composure returned. "We just spent the last seven hours traveling together."

Logan watched her closely, weighing her lie against his temper. Finally, "Have it your way, half-pint."

Surprise flashed through her blue eyes, she climbed the next step and the next, moving away from him, "It's nothing."

"We'll see."

She turned, disappearing down the hallway without comment. Logan watched her, releasing a heavy breath. She deposited her suitcase on the floor of her room, shooting her bed a singular, longing stare before turning back the way she'd come. Pete had made himself comfortable around the conference room table when she arrived.

"Welcome back."

Kitty took the empty chair to Emma's right, "It was a quick trip."

"Is MI13 in any danger?" Rogue asked.

"Not that we can tell," Pete replied carefully. "But Stuart is up to his fucking balls in calls from parliament, and threats. Creed is going to have a lot to answer for when this is done."

"We still don't know why Victor teamed up with Stryker," Emma interrupted, eyes slating to Kitty's tight lipped expression. "It could be blackmail, or brainwashing. We need to focus on getting those files back, not Victor's participation. At least not yet."

"We still move tomorrow?" Kitty said, turning to each of her teammates.

"Once you've got gotten some shut eye," Logan nodded. "We'll move."

They dispersed, Pete and Kitty falling into their respective beds, fully clothed, half asleep as their heads hit the pillow.


	22. Chapter 22

**Present Day**

 ** _New York_**

In the morning, Logan provided a brief update, rallying a team, and instructing Oro to prepare the jet.

They suited up, Emma and Kitty side by side, their battle gear in stark contrast. Emma finished lacing her white boots, standing, arms lifting to tug her silvery hair into a low bun. Kitty was busy flexing her mutation, concentrating on creating an elevator effect intangability, starting from the top of her head to her toes.

"Impressive," Emma said, watching her methodical practice. After a few moments of silence Emma asked, "Are you ready to face Victor?"

"I survived one betrayal already," she replied, instantly reminded of his indiscretion almost two years prior, Stryker's files on Logan, stashed away in his bedroom.

"We don't know why he did it," Emma offered.

"I plan on finding out."

They landed just outside of Grimsby, locating and fanning out around Stryker's facility. It was another building on the water, alone in the wild of the Canadian brush.

"Looks tight," Logan said, accessing the heavily armed perimeter.

"We can't leave without those files," Kitty said. "And Victor."

She felt Pete stiffen at the sound of his name.

"I'll see about Creed," Logan said. "You worry about those files."

Kitty nodded her agreement, as Logan signaled the other two teams to prepare to move. Within half a minute of storming the outside they were met with heavily armed guards, and Shaw's followers, including Pierce. Kitty's eyes went over and over the humans and mutants spread out before them, searching for Victor, hoping for his absence as much as she was his familiar scowl.

"You again," Pete said, eyes narrowing, fingers stretching at the sight of Pierce. Kitty branched out, working her way towards the gated entrance, making quick work of the electronic keypad, admitting herself, and the others. She was almost to the main doors when one of Stryker's men caught her by surprise, the butt of his gun sprawling her to the ground.

"Pryde-"

She felt the heat of Pete's swords behind her, bringing the man down before he could do any more harm. She winced, fingers touching her cheek. Pete caught her bicep, lifting her up, eyes assessing the damage.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, shaking him off. "We need to keep moving-"

"Kitty," Emma's voice rang out, collecting her attention. "It's Shaw."

She turned, following Emma's finger to the fringes of the facility, he was making quick work of Scott's team, his powerful fists sending Oro and Jubilee flying. Kitty started forward, Pete at her back, "We should get inside before he notices us."

"And leave them?" She demanded, eyes blazing upwards. "I don't think so."

"Priorities, Pryde."

"If you're so hot to have those files back, then you go," she snapped.

Pete glared back, "You're the only one who's going to be able to retrieve them, and you know it."

"Katherine Pryde."

They turned, in unison, Shaw was twenty paces away, Jubilee tight to his chest, her cheeks ashen.

"Let her go," Kitty commanded. Shaw debated her request, forearm tight across Jubilee's neck. "Shaw-"

Pete made a grab for Kitty's arm, with the intention of turning her away from Jubilee's fate. But he was a moment too late, the sound of her neck snapping drew a cry from Kitty's lips. Jubilee crumpled, Shaw stepped over her lifeless body, advancing on them.

Kitty phased out of Pete's grip, hurling herself forward.

"Logan!"

He turned at Pete's shout, taking in Kitty's attack and Jubilee's fallen body in a single flash of his dark eyes. Kitty dodged Shaw's initial punch, landing a series of bone crunching blows to his side and spine. She rolled away, crouched low, blue eyes slitted, awaiting his next move.

"You're outnumbered," he leered.

"Where's Victor."

He laughed, taking another jab at her. Kitty's diamond form rushed forward to deflect. Her hand shot out, diamond encasing her fingers as she squeezed his neck, "I asked you a question."

Shaw wheezed, light eyes feverish, he looked every bit the zealot he had become in the name of releasing Sinister upon the world. Kitty searched his eyes, fingers tightening.

"He's with us now."

He was lying, Kitty felt a surge of triumph, as she probed deeper she replied, "I don't believe you."

"MI13 would say differently."

Pete's hot knives sliced a spurting wound along Shaw's side. Kitty swung around, eyes narrowed on Pete at his interruption, he pointedly avoided her eyes.

"Priorities," he repeated softly, gaze trained on Shaw.

"Bastard," she muttered, turning away from him, pony tail swinging. Logan barreled into Shaw before he was fully recovered from Pete's attack, claws extended. When both men fell back Kitty sprang forward, tears blurring her vision when she caught sight of Jubilee out of the corner of her eye.

Logan and Shaw broke apart, Shaw backing up towards his facility, his men forming around him. Kitty stepped forward, despite Logan and Pete's dual protests at her back. Her diamond form glittered just on the periphery of her consciousness, ready to slide into place if need be.

"I know why you're here," Kitty said, tone cool. "What I want to know, is why _me_."

"You are our last defense against Sinister."

She looked up, surprised at the sound of Stryker's voice as he stepped out from under the enclave of the building. He was grayer than she remembered, his belly rounding out beneath his dark overcoat. Logan growled at the sight of him, claws flashing silvery between his knuckles.

"I may not be enough," Kitty replied, honesty coloring her tone, fear.

"I believe you underestimate yourself, Ms. Pryde," Stryker said in return, light eyes assessing her with thinly concealed distaste. "Your powers have grown even more impressive over the past twelve months. I trust you'll remember your place in all this when the time comes."

She bit back the roulette of curses bubbling at the back of her throat, instead replying icily, "I don't know what you have planned, but-"

"I don't believe that," Stryker interrupted mildly.

She hesitated, before replying, "You're trying to wipe out mutants."

Stryker let out a grim sigh, "Your kind is something of a threat to the human population."

"Since when?" Kitty demanded. "For as long as I can remember humans have been hunting mutants. Not the other way around."

"For now, maybe," he replied, hands firmly tucked in his pockets, his steady gaze unnerving. "But what happens one day when mutants decide to rise up against us?"

Kitty shook her head, "Mutants want anonymity just as much as humans want to pretend we don't exist."

"Not all," Stryker replied, expression clouding. "Some of your kind have made it clear they're proud of their differences."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of," Kitty returned, chin lifting.

"Pride becomes courage, and courage, Ms. Pryde," he shook his head. "Courage leads to something far more sinister."

The irony of his statement wasn't lost on Kitty, who, despite her best effort let out a dry laugh.

"Uprising."

"You're afraid mutants will turn against you, so you turn against them?"

"Better to strike first," Stryker replied decidedly. "The Hellfire Club was just the beginning."

"That was a mistake," Emma said, voice rising up from behind Kitty.

"You chose the wrong side, Frost," Shaw was shaking his head.

Emma's fury was palpable as she ground out, "Tell me you didn't destroy the Club in exchange for your own survival."

Shaw lifted his chin, no denial on his lips.

"You're sick," she spat, skin beginning to ripple as her diamond form returned, sweeping her from head to toe. "You think he'll spare you when this is through?" Emma demanded, pointing a finger at Stryker, eyes on Shaw. "You'll be the first to die."

Shaw ignored her, unaffected, "Sinister is more powerful than all of us. You would be wise to surrender to me, and beg mercy from-"

She lashed out, her booted foot catching him square in the mouth, a firework of blood exploded through the air upon impact.

"Frost," Logan called out a warning.

"I'd sooner die than beg," she replied savagely, before easing back into formation with the others.

Shaw wiped blood from his mouth, eyes taking in each X-men in turn, "You'll regret standing against us."

Kitty shook her head, "The only person with anything to regret is you, Shaw."

"You should have sided with me when you had the chance."

"I'm not afraid of you," she replied. "And I'm not afraid of Sinister."

"Once Sinister is freed those files will lead us to every mutant on the planet," Stryker said calmly. "Your team won't stand a chance of survival, Katherine."

"Sinister isn't going anywhere," Kitty said, ignoring Stryker's threat.

"We'll see," Shaw replied, easing the sleeves of his dark coat higher, revealing corded muscle and silvery battle scars.

"Yes we shall," Stryker agreed, moving backwards as the mutants and his men readied for battle.

"I'll take Sebastian," Emma murmured, blue eyes narrowed on her former King.

"I'm going after those files," Kitty said, eyes on the door behind Shaw and his men.

Logan motioned to half of the assembled team, "With me. Scott?"

Scott motioned the remaining mutants to him, "Ready, old man."

Logan grunted, blades peeping between his knuckles, "On your mark, bub."

Adjusting his visor, Scott surveyed the assortment of Shaw's followers and Stryker's muscle, counting the heads and assessing the damage needed to undermine their mission.

"They got us, twelve to one."

"I like those odds," Emma snarled.

Scott gave the signal and all around them bodies and bolts of energy careened forward. Kitty and Emma cornered Shaw, mindful of his heavy fists as they landed their own foray of attacks. When Kitty was confident Emma, on fury alone, could handle Shaw, she made a break for the door. She felt Pete close behind her.

"I don't need your help," she snapped, slamming into two men, shoulder crunching through the body armor across his chest, the heel of her hand meeting the second man's nose.

"You need something, Pryde," he grumbled, maintaining his follow. They entered the building, met with more armed men. Pete lifted his chin, indicating the hall at their back, "Go."

Kitty hesitated.

"Go," he repeated, emphatic. "You don't have a lot of time."

She turned, disappearing down the hallway as Pete eliminated Stryker's guards.

Outside, Emma had Shaw by the throat.

"Did they die by your hand?" She demanded softly, face less than an inch from his, diamond fingers digging into his skin.

Shaw stared back at her, "Most of them."

Her grip tightened, understanding he wasn't afraid to die, she undermined another fear, "You won't live to see Sinister freed."

Before she could finish the deed, rough hands separated her from Shaw.

"No-"

Shaw dissolved into the fray, to lick his wounds. Emma spun, furious, diamond skin winking in the setting sunlight, "What do you think you're doing-"

The sentence died on her lips, Victor stood before her, expression grim. He looked no worse for the wear, sporting a beard and a drawn expression.

"Victor-"

"It's your fault she's dead."

Emma shook her head, "What are you talking about-"

Logan roared Victor's name from across the field, his silver claws cutting a path to him, as he slowly advanced on Emma.

"They told me everything," Victor growled, closing in on her. "Shaw killed all of them because you dethroned him. You put her at risk, and goddamnit I let you-"

Logan caught Victor around the waist, sprawling them both to the ground.

"Long time no see, bub."

"If you get in my way, I'll kill you too," Victor warned.

"Kitty's alive," Emma cried out, stepping closer, diamonds breaking away to reveal downy skin. "She's alive, Victor. Shaw didn't kill her in the Club massacre."

"You're lying-"

"No," Logan shook his head. "She's not."

"Where is she?"

Logan lifted his chin, indicating the building at their back, "She went after the files you swiped."

Victor let out a low growl, turning on Shaw, who had been held up by Rogue and Oro.

"You lied to me."

His claws shredded a gaping hole through the other man's gut. Shaw fell to his knees, eyes wide, hands to his slowly emptying insides.

"MI13," Emma said, shaking her head. "Why would you-"

"Because I had nothing to lose," Victor ground out, watching Shaw die at his feet, taking sick pleasure in the life dissolving from his eyes. "Shaw promised me what I wanted in return."

Emma waited, Logan at her shoulder.

"Death."

With that, Victor turned, pounding towards the building, Emma on his heels. Before they reached the door part of the building blew halfway to the sky, sending chunks of concrete and dust flying. Jean deflected the blast, sending the debris into the river along the rear of the building.

Victor was stone still, looking at the destroyed side of the building, "Katherine-"

From the destruction, a lone figure could be seen, grappling with two men. Sparkling, from head to toe, in the slipping sun, she was impossible to miss. Logan dragged a hand across his face, watching Victor's brow furrow, looking at Emma, back to Kitty, "Who the hell is that."

Rogue opened her mouth and promptly closed it, eyes on Logan. Victor stared between the two of them, expression expectant, patience spent.

Logan rubbed the side of his neck, gesturing to Kitty's glittering silhouette, wordless. Victor shifted, squinting against the setting sun, ready to repeat himself when Kitty's glass armor started to retract, revealing the swing of her dark pony tail and the unmistakable curvature of her figure. She felled the last man with a nose cracking head butt, tossing her shoulders as the diamond fractals receded, her skin smoothing over.

Victor let out a low growl, "What the fuck is going on."

"She has a lot to tell you," Logan replied with a heavy sigh. "And you're not going to like most of it."

Victor shot him a look, "You were supposed to take care of her."

Logan met his glare, expression bone weary, "Creed."

His head dropped, shoulders lifting with the force of his exhaled breath, his temper cooling in the face of Logan's unspoken reality: Katherine Pryde didn't need taking care of.

Rogue said quietly. "She's missed you."

At Rogue's words a long figure appeared at the fringe of the tattered building, clearly they'd been close by during the blast. Cigarette already in hand, dark trench roughed up from the fighting, Pete's gaze was on Kitty through twin blackened eyes. Victor released a low growl, watching the other man cross the rubble to Kitty's side, hands dug into his pockets, head dipped low to catch her every word.

"He's still here."

Rogue and Logan passed a look over Victor's shoulder, England on their minds. Kitty turned away from Pete, hand lifting to catch their attention. When her eyes found the trio her whole body froze at the sight of Victor. She was instantly in motion, tripping over debris in an effort to reach him in record time. Victor started forward, catching her as she tumbled headlong into his chest. His arms tightened around her, lifting her feet from the ground, crushing her to his front.

"He told me you were dead."

Kitty braced her palms to his shirt front, putting just enough space between them to lift her gaze to his, "Who told you?"

"Shaw."

She shook her head, "I've been trying to save you-"

"He told me you died fighting in the Club massacre," his voice was low, expression black. "He told me he killed you to send a message to Frost-"

"I'm right here," she interrupted, the darkness in his eyes frightening her. "I'm right here-"

He dropped his head, mouth covering hers.

"What happened," she demanded softly, breaking their kiss to search his face. "MI13-"

"When Shaw told me you were dead, I wanted to die with you."

Her brow knit.

"I offered to raid MI13, if he promised me a quick death when I returned."

Tears filled her eyes, "Victor-"

He pulled her tight to his body, "I missed you, little kitten."

Her arms moved around his neck, squeezing, revealing in the feel of his flesh against hers. Victor caught sight of Pete over her head, his expression unreadable from a distance. He turned away from Victor's stare, cigarette smoke drifting around his shoulders.


	23. Chapter 23

**Present Day**

 _ **New York**_

Logan carried Jubilee's slain body back to the jet, heart heavy, Rogue's tears wetting his shoulder.

"It's alright, darlin'," he said quietly, settling Jubilee across one of the cots along the wall, hands falling to Rogue's shoulders.

She shook her head, "No, it's not."

Kitty stopped beside Jubilee, head bowed, tears falling down each cheek. Victor stood behind her, cheek to her ragged pony tail, hand spanning her stomach. She stayed until she had no tears left, allowing him to guide her into a seat in the corner of the jet, settling her into his lap. She curled into him, breathing in his scent, her traitor heart beating steadily against his chest.

He touched the bruise along her cheekbone, jaw tightening.

"I'm fine."

"Did you get the files," he said, fingers removing stray curls from her forehead.

"Yes," Kitty said. "From what I could tell, Stryker didn't recreate the files. But, I wiped his hard drive just to be safe."

Victor tipped her chin up, meeting her eyes to murmur, "I'm sorry."

"What were you thinking," she demanded softly.

"I wasn't," he admitted, releasing a breath. "You were gone. I wasn't thinking about anything but that."

"Millions of mutants could have died," she said, shaking her head, angry with him, disappointed.

"But it wasn't," he said. "Thanks to you."

Kitty said little else for the duration of the flight, content to sit in the circle of his arms.

The Institute was lit up when they returned, Xavier waiting in the hanger, expression drawn at the sight of Jubilee cradled in Logan's strong arms. Hank led Logan to the infirmary, as Scott discussed the raid with Xavier.

"The files?"

Kitty unhooked the hard drive from her belt, lifting it for everyone to see, "Safely home."

Pete grunted, "Not quite."

"Safe," Kitty amended.

"They need to be returned to MI13."

"Then take them," Victor suggested quietly, something predatory humming in his dark eyes.

Pete shifted, returning Victor's glare.

"We wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you," Pete said. He pointed a finger at Jubilee's departing form, "She'd be alive-"

Victor lunged forward, jaw tight enough to tic.

"Enough," Kitty cried, stepping up to catch Victor's arm. "Please-"

"Do you have any idea how much danger you put her in?" Pete demanded quietly, toe to toe with Victor.

Before Victor could reply, Emma hauled Pete backwards by scruff of his jacket, "That's enough, agent Wisdom."

He jerked out of her grip, grumbling.

"Lets go," she hissed, pointing towards the bay doors. He shot Victor a singular glare as he retrieved cigarettes from his pocket and allowed Emma to corral him outside, leaving Kitty and Victor alone.

"Victor-"

"Is that what you think?" He demanded quietly, hands still clenched to fists at his sides. "This is my fault."

Kitty shook her head, answering honestly, "No, it's Sinister's."

He stared down at her, quiet, searching her eyes.

"What's been going on since I got picked up by Shaw?"

Kitty wet her lips, choosing her words carefully, "We've been looking for you."

"That all?" He demanded softly, expression suggesting she wasn't being forthright.

"My powers grew."

"I noticed," he replied, he would never forget the sight of her, diamond armor burning like white fire on the fringe of the battlefield. She'd looked every part the avenging angel he knew her to be.

"I was elected Black Queen of Hellfire Club."

"Jesus," Victor growled. "So, Shaw wasn't lying about that-"

"I did what I had to do," she lifted her chin. "To keep the X-men safe."

"No thanks to me," he added sagely.

"This wasn't your fault," she repeated, meaningfully.

He turned away, biting off a curse, finally, "Lets go home."

She frowned, "We can't leave-"

"We'll be back in the morning," he cut her off. "I want to go home."

She regarded his hand, extended to her, before slipping her fingers into his. His truck, sitting exactly where he'd left it weeks prior, started on the second try. They reached the cabin before twelve. Victor pressed Kitty to shower first, wanting to check the outdoor water pumps and electric. She built a small fire when he disappeared upstairs, hands caked with mud from checking the outside of the house.

He came downstairs after his shower, wearing nothing but dark jeans, his beard reduced to scruff. She was in front of the slow growing fire, blanket around her shoulders, one of his old t-shirts brushing her thighs. He crouched beside her, thumb brushing the bruise under her eye, "This needs ice, little kitten."

She said nothing, eyes on the fire.

"I'm going to ask you again," he said quietly, hand falling from her face. "What went on while I was gone."

"I told you-"

"That's not what I'm talking about."

"Then what are you talking about," she demanded, finally turning to meet his gaze.

He caught her chin, fingers squeezing for half a second before gentling, "Careful."

"I went with England after your hack," she said. "We needed to make sure MI13 was secure."

"We?"

"Agent Wisdom and I."

He released her, straightening up, shoving both hands through his hair. Kitty followed suit, "Those files were highly classified-"

"I've already heard all that," Victor snapped, dark eyes narrowed. Caught between his guilt and fury, he'd swiped the files, he'd practically bought her plane ticket to England with Wisdom. Shaw's selfish indiscretion had cost him more time with Kitty, and Jubilee's life. Guilt washed him from head to toe, followed quickly by white hot rage.

"Then you understand why I went."

He shook his head, "That's not what I said."

"Stryker had access to confidential information," Kitty reasoned. "Mutants were in danger, Victor. I had to-"

"You had to what?" He demanded, prowling closer as she backed into the kitchen. "Travel halfway around the world with a man who's interested in having his hands down your pants."

She took another step back, "He knows I'm taken."

"Tell me he's never had his hands on you."

Kitty hesitated a fraction too long, caught between reality and Victor's unforgiving temper. His palm came down against the tabletop at her back, Kitty jumped on impact.

"When."

She shook her head, "I'm not-"

He caught her bicep, dragging her to his chest, "Answer me."

She swallowed, "While we were away-"

Victor's eyes squeezed shut, his temper reaching explosive heights at her quiet admission.

"Victor, please look at me-"

"Did you fuck him."

She jerked backwards, shaking her head, "No-"

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not," she cried. "He kissed me, nothing more."

His dark eyes flicked open, meeting hers, black as night, "I'll deal with him in the morning, but for now-"

He hoisted her onto the edge of the table beside them, expression unforgiving. His palms against her skin were hot, his fury palpable.

"Victor-"

His hand snaking between them, snapping her underwear at the hip. She phased, and Victor growled in protest, "You don't want me to have to chase you-"

Kitty returned to her solid form, meeting his gaze, palms to his chest, "Victor, don't-"

His reply was to jerk his belt free of his pants. Kitty shoved her knee into his ribs, giving herself just enough time to scoot backwards across the table, "We need to talk-"

He caught her ankle with a low growl, jaw tight enough to tick. Before she could open her mouth to protest, he dragged her hips in line with the edge of the table, neatly penetrating her with a single jerk of his hips. She cried out, back arching, suddenly filled with him. He paused, looking her over, from the flowering crux of her thighs to the O of her mouth.

Her eyes blinked open, cheeks awash with color as his hand dug into her hair, lifting her face to his, "I'm going to make sure you never think about that bastard again."

He rolled his hips, pressing deeper, driving her harder into the tabletop. She whimpered, finger tips dug into his chest.

His fingers tightened in her hair, demanding her attention, "Moan."

Her eyes widened at his singular command, a flash of annoyance at being used like a toy.

"Fuck you."

He shook his head, pushing somehow deeper, harder.

"No," he ground out. "I'm fucking you. I want you to moan for me."

She bit her lip, unsettled by the restraint it took to deny his request. With each thrust she felt her body tensing, tightening, wanting more. She braced her hands to his shoulders, looking for reprieve, "Enough, please-"

He shook his head, flattening her to the wood, pressing down over her, collecting her wrists in his hands, "Not yet."

Another series of deep thrusts left her thighs weak. Victor kissed her, teeth catching her bottom lip, hips continuing to pound into hers. Her orgasm swept over them both, ripping a moan from between her lips, bringing a perfect flush from her chest to her cheeks.

He stilled, leaning back just enough to look her over spread out beneath him, ass to their kitchen table.

"Sweetheart."

She flashed him a look, arms still suspended above her head, his fingers warm across her biceps.

"I'm not finished with you yet."

Before she could muster the energy to protest he scooped her up, still wedged inside of her, carrying her upstairs to their darkened bedroom. Across rumpled sheets he had her again and again, until she begged him to stop. He finally poured into her, hips jerking one final time. His forehead connected with hers, eyes squeezed shut as the sensation crescendoed and ebbed.

He passed a hand over her forehead, smoothing curls from her face, "Katherine."

She opened her eyes, finding his, expression unreadable.

"You're mine, baby."

She was perfectly still beneath him.

"I suggest you don't forget it again."

She watched his slow lope into the bathroom, listened to the water run down the sink as he cleaned himself up. After a few moments she slid off the sheets to follow him, framed in the bathroom doorway, shirt wrinkled from his attention.

"What if I didn't want you anymore."

He met her eyes in the mirror, holding her gaze, challenging her without a word. Before long she disengaged, stepping into the gloom of the bedroom. Victor followed, taking her face between his fingers, tilting her head with one hand as he said quietly, "You're mine."

He sealed the deal with a thorough kiss, hard enough to bruise, brief enough to leave her unmarked.

"Clean up," he said, releasing her, working his shirt over his head. "Come to bed."

She debated refusing, throwing a tantrum, restating her lie: _I don't want you_.

"I do want you."

"I know," he replied. His mouth tilting into a slow smirk, "I can smell it."

She shook her head, "I needed to say it."

Closing the distance between them she took his face between both hands, pulling him down for a kiss. She bit his lip to break, drawing a fleck of blood and a growl from him.

His hand closing over her ass, "Sweetheart-"

She backed away before he could get more of a hold on her, "We're even."

With that, she headed for the bathroom, closing the door behind her, left with her decisions and pounding pulse.


	24. Chapter 24

**Present Day**

 _ **New York**_

Kitty awoke to sunshine and an empty bed. She'd slept later than she intended, her body worn out from traveling and yesterday's fight. She stretched, the sheets and architecture of the room as familiar to her as her own face.

Victor was downstairs, sitting in one of the porch chairs, dark eyes trained on the forest, fringed with the sound of tree frogs and the scuttle of squirrels. She stayed in the doorway, shoulder pressed to the house, studying his profile. Understanding with striking clarity that there was no future with agent Wisdom now that he'd come back to her.

"Are you sore, little kitten."

"Some," she admitted.

His smirk was predatory, "Did you miss me?"

"Some."

At her returning smirk his dark eyes narrowed in gentle warning.

"Yes," she amended, seriousness quieting her voice. " _Yes_."

"How much."

She shifted, hips to the porch railing so she could get a better look at him. He was wearing the same dark jeans he'd pulled on last night, and a rust colored flannel, the first few buttons open, revealing the hard planes of his chest.

"I wore your t-shirt to bed every night," she said quietly.

His gaze was steady, stuck on the woods, elbows stacked atop his thighs.

"At every missed opportunity to get you back, my mutation grew more powerful."

A muscle in his jaw tightened, "That could have killed you."

A small smile crossed her lips, "Lucky for me you found your way back."

"Why him."

She stilled, expression unreadable.

"Why Wisdom."

"You know him?"

"No," Victor shook his head.

"Then why-"

"How much could you miss me?" He interrupted, finally shifting to meet her eyes. "If you found another man?"

"It's not like that," Kitty shook her head, hands running up and down her arms.

"What's it like then?" He said. "Explain it to me."

"He asked me to put my trust in him," she replied quietly. "I _wanted_ to trust him."

"Trusting a man and falling in love with him are two different things, Katherine."

She frowned, "I don't love him."

"Then how could you do this to me?" He ground out, standing to face her, demanding her full attention.

"I made a mistake," she said. "I trusted the wrong man."

Victor stared at her, silent.

"He offered to have my back while you were gone," she said. "I didn't think he had an ulterior motive-"

"You can't tell me it didn't cross your mind."

Color infused her cheeks, baring her lie. Victor turned, fingers closing around the porch railing, claws dug into the wood. His shoulders were stiff, head bowed. Kitty closed the space between them, cheek to his back, hands running up the front of his body, palm to his steady heartbeat, "I'm sorry."

"You didn't answer my question," he said.

"What question."

"Why Wisdom."

"I already told you-"

Victor turned, hands to her biceps, keeping her under his nose, "Tell me the fucking truth."

"What do you want me to say?" She demanded. "To lie, and say I was falling for him? I wasn't-"

"You must have been doing something if he kissed you."

Her gaze slid free of his, as she replied softly, "It was after I saw the security footage of your MI13 break in."

Victor's grip lessened, guilt infusing his expression.

"It was a mistake," she said, vehement. "I was upset-"

"He took advantage of you-"

"No," she shook her head. "He offered an escape and I took it."

"All he wanted was a kiss," Victor demanded.

"No."

He released a low growl, eyes flickering black.

"I'll fucking kill him-"

Kitty phased away, shoulders straightening, "No, you won't."

"Like hell-"

"I let him kiss me," she said. "If you're angry with anyone it should be me."

His expression suggested he was beyond anger when it came to her, and didn't need to be reminded.

"Leave Pete out of this-"

Victor regarded her cooly, a snarl tipping the corners of his mouth, "Protecting him?"

"No-"

"That's fine with me," Victor said, expression devoid of sympathy. Kitty shivered, it was the same look he'd worn the day he kidnapped her. "I have no problem punishing you instead."

Her heartbeat kicked up against her ribs.

"And I guarantee I'll enjoy punishing you a hell of a lot more than I would Wisdom."

"I thought last night-"

"Last night was about reminding you who you belong to, little kitten," Victor said, prowling closer. She phased through the wall of the house, through the kitchen cabinetry, into the living room. Victor threw open the door of the porch, advancing on her slowly retreating form. He caught her arm, jerking her to his chest, "I let you off easy."

Kitty struggled, avoiding her instinct to phase and run, knowing it would heighten his predatory instincts.

"Victor-"

"What should I do with you?" He demanded quietly, free hand lifting to brush flyaway curls from her face. His fingers tangled in her hair, drawing her head back, revealing the twin scars he'd left on her neck so many months ago.

"Please-"

"You're my mate," he growled, fingers digging into her arm, expression pure fury as he looked down at her. "And you let another man put his hands on you."

"It was a mistake," she said quietly, firmly. "I meant what I said, I am sorry."

"Not yet you're not," he snarled, dragging her up the stairs to their shared bedroom, the sheets rumpled from their two bodies, her pillow holding the gentle indent of her head.

"Victor, please-"

"I'll only warn you once," he promised softly, holding her chin to keep her gaze on him. "If you phase away from me, you won't like the consequences."

She whimpered, giving no more of an answer, heart pulsing to panic. He smelled the change in her, emitting a low growl at the sweet scent of her fear. He ducked his head, nose to her neck, sniffing, teeth nipping the lobe of her ear. She shut her eyes, body spinning into familiar commotion at his touch.

Without another word he flipped her around, pressing her face down into the mattress, leaning his face close to hers to growl, "Don't move."

She twisted her face away, cheek pressed to the sheets. He moved behind her, belt hissing from of his pants, as his opposite hand yanked her t-shirt to reveal the curve of her ass.

Kitty instantly stiffened, trying to sit up, "Victor-"

"Don't make me tell you again," he snarled. She froze instantly, waiting, breath caught tight in her lungs. His belt met the backs of her thighs with a slap. She winced, he wasn't using his full strength and it still hurt like hell. The next hit fell along the same passage of skin, Kitty cried out. He shifted his next hits higher, covering her naked ass with interlocking red marks. When he finished, her skin was bright pink from his attention. He reached down, fingers knotting in her hair to pull her upright.

Kitty's eyes were shut tight, mouth pressed into a thin line.

"Look at me," he commanded.

She hesitated a moment before complying, blue eyes wet with unshed tears.

"If I ever catch you with him again, I'll kill him," Victor growled softly. "And you'll have more than a sore ass."

"You made your point," she replied tightly. "Let go of me."

He did as she asked, allowing her to shift past him and disappear downstairs. He hurled his belt across the room, slammed his fist through the dry wall, eyes squeezed shut against the desire to find Agent Wisdom and rip him limb from limb.


End file.
